Tag Archive - voting

Community Organizer+Grasp of Web 2.0/Social Media=President Elect Obama

November 6, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 9 Comments

Last April
April 10, 2008: That is the date I wrote my post regarding an interview with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt and the authors of Millenial Makeover: MySpace, You Tube, and the Future of American Politics. There were tons of points that the authors made that day, but three continue to stick out to me because I’m really interested in social media and I love working with this generation.

  • Communication to this generation via text, online, etc. is how they make decisions, rather than listening to authority. They make decisions based on their connectivity network, rather than make decisions based on authority.
  • You should have two different strategies to reach the Boomers and the Millenials. And they should be, and better be completely different. The Millenials can sniff out any in-authenticity in marketing. They don’t care about or watch TV, because they would rather be online and communicating and networking with people.
  • Interested in Peer to Peer, Bottoms-Up organizing styles, and not Top-Down, Command and Control style. You can appeal to them if you can talk to them about communitarian solutions that are self organizing.

The Millenials Take the Election
I think those are really great observations that Obama seemed to understand and McCain didn’t. I’m not a political analyst, but I think that’s fairly accurate. “Young voters preferred Obama over John McCain by 68 percent to 30 percent — the highest share of the youth vote obtained by any candidate since exit polls began reporting results by age in 1976, according to CIRCLE, a non-partisan organization that promotes research on the political engagement of Americans between ages 15 and 25.” (Youth vote may have been key in Obama’s win). In fact, the article goes on to say, quoting the authors of the Millenial Makeover, the following:

Through a steady stream of texts and Twitters, experts agree Obama has managed to excite young voters by meeting them where they live — online.

“This is a group of people who are constantly checking in with everybody else in their circle to make a decision,” says Morley Winograd, the co-author of “Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics” and a former adviser to Vice President Al Gore. He defines Millennials as ages 18 to 26. Continue Reading…

Continued Series–Non-Political Observations on Why I Think Many in My Generation and Younger are Voting for Barack Obama: Reason #3

March 10, 2008 in Uncategorized with 4 Comments

I could probably post a few more reasons, but as I mentioned before, I tend not to post much on politics. So this is reason #3, and the final posting in this series (you can read the other two reasons below).

Reason #3: Hope

This is the one word that I hear more often than not surrounding the Obama campaign and it’s supporters. It’s definitely the number one reason that I hear among college students that I work with as well. What this hope looks like, or the expectations behind it probably differ from person to person, but here is my general sense. Most people have become disillusioned with politics today, and therefore, anyone new who enters the race stands for some kind of hope that did not previously exist. Now I know Obama is not new to politics, but his name is not one that we have heard of for years like McCain and Hilary. Being new to a presidential race ushers in a sense of hope and anticipation for many.

Though this last week has been a pretty rough one (relatively speaking) for the Obama campaign, I think most young people admire his attempts to keep the politics from turning into mudslinging. Whether you think this has been accomplished or not is really besides the point, because he tends to be the one to at least verbally acknowledge the desire to stay above the fray. Trying to do politics differently has ushered in a sense of hope as well.

Last, I think that many younger people see the possibility of having the first ever African-American in the presidential office as a hopeful sign for our country. It brings a sense of hope that any odds can be overcome and that our country has maybe gotten past some of the racism that has existed. Now we all know that racism exists and will continue to exist, but I think Obama’s presence in the race signals a new day for America that many people are excited about.

As I mentioned before, I could go on with more and more posts on this topic but I’m going to bring it to a close.

#1: Openness

#2: Experience/Inexperience

#3: Hope

These are just three of the non-political observations that I have made, and I’m sure you might have add to more, and I would love to hear from you.