Don't vote!!

With the help of this video clip celebrities, like Leonardo DiCaprio, Eva Longoria, Ashton Kutcher and co, want to encourage American youth to register to vote in the presidential election in 2008! Young people , much more than elder people, feel somehow connected to young celebrities-actors, actresses, singers- in the way that they see them as their rolemodels. It is a worldwide phenomenon. Most young people in America and in Germany( and in other countries) watch Leonardo DiCaprio movies or listen to the music of will i. am; they watch th great success and the great career of these famous people. As they are fans of them, many youngsters celebrate their rolemodels- they hang up posters on their walls, look for similar clothes and styles, go to concerts or events where they look forward to seeing their sweethearts (in some cases =) ). Now, watching this video clip, in which a multiplicity of actors and singers animate the youth to vote, the young people feel in a way connected to their rolemodels. They are directly invited by them to join the election. And this is the goal of the campaign- it succeeds!!

Why do most young people don't know who to vote for?

"There's a disease affecting young voters.
It's name? Apathy!" (http://www.govspot.com/features/youngvoterapathy.htm)
But how come?
There are various reasons for the apathy of young voters, both in America and in Germany. The most determining reason is probably that the younger generation of voters don't think that politicians put through what they always predict. Therefore they can't really identify with one single party. Once they feel sympathy for a political party and its manifesto, they will be disappointed because in the end the party is not able to get their aims through. Young voters, having not much know-how about voting, lose trust in politics as they feel not being taken seriously by politicians.
In American, for example, the number of young voters during the last presidential election had fallen to 32%, comparing to the year 1972, which was the first year that people aged 18 and over could vote. In this year there was an attendance of 50% of young voters.
In Germany it is just as in America: the senior generation dominates politics. Comparing the attendance in Germany, in the Federal State of Baden- Württemberg, in 1980 and in 2009, it is striking that the "Bundestagswahl" in 1980 had nearly the same number of voters- old age and low age- both around 25%. In year 2009 young voter's apathy was about 83%. (http://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/stz/page/2238918_0_8245_-wahl-analyse-spd-laufen-junge-waehler-davon.html)
Why are these young people so peevish?
Perhaps we already have an answer to this question: Our political system is too far away from our own living environment- it just seems like something very abstract to many young voters.

Introduction: Young Voters

It is a fact to say that today there are many young people who are not willing to vote.
We are students at the University of Dortmund who see the German youngster's refusal of voting and who are now questioning if this problem is transferable to the American young voters, as well.
It seems, as if many young people cannot really identify with the proposals of political parties.
The question is whether the political system is responsible for that, or the change of the youngster's attitude towards politics in our society. Nowadays, different from what was the situation like in the past, politicians or political parties in general try to reach young people through different campaigns in order to arouse their interest to vote. In our blog we want to elaborate the relation between American and German young people referring to their attendance to vote.