How come the only people working on campaigns are middle aged?

[undeterred]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but there seems to be a serious age gap in volunteers- everyone is 40-plus and most are female. I'm talking about weekend volunteers- why is the younger generation so conspicuously absent from the volunteer force we badly need right now to take back Congress?

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. Well, I got some Dem literature hand delivered a couple of days

ago here. She was blonde, pretty, upbeat, and I'm guessing early 20's if that much. :shrug:

(Told my hubby this cute little girl brought this by this afternoon. God, that makes me feel old to say such things! LOL!)

[MuseRider]

2. We have had lots

of kids, some not old enough to vote putting out signs and doing lit drops. Could be the issue we are working for but whatever, they are working here in almost equal numbers. At 52 I am the oldest of the group. :shrug:

[SmokingJacket]

3. If not positively elderly.

There's a group of peace protestors in my town who get out once a week with big signs: all of them have white hair. I'm a poll worker -- not a campaign worker -- and in my thirties I'm the youngest there by decades.

I think there's a real decline in civic responsibility among younger people. Maybe because more of them grew up in isolated suburbs and don't identify with their locality much?

[undeterred]

5. Same for our peace group- about half retirees

I'm not saying that there aren't any young people, but they are the most underrepresented age group in all the activism I have contact with.

[knitter4democracy]

11. It's the same with most of my knitting groups.

I think it has more to do with time issues. It's not that there aren't young knitters all over the place (and there are), they just tend to knit differently and at different times. They also tend to be working more hours than those who are retired or semi-retired.

In our county party, our party chair is younger than I am (and I'm 32). We have young kids all over the place, and we're not a college town. The college town in the next county over has tons of young kids working for the Dems in every area.

[Clark2008]

16. I think it's because we have to spend most of our time working.

What little free time we have is reserved for family.

I worked on Wes Clark's campaign and took my then 4-year-old along with me; however, now I'm remarried and have another baby on the way.

It's very difficult to find time to donate to campaigns - other than some water-cooler chatter, handing out a few buttons/literature and making a few phone calls.

It's sad how much time work takes of our lives these days.

[porphyrian]

4. Housewives and retirees...

...are the most available demographic during regular working hours. Nothing more.

[undeterred]

8. I'm talking about weekends, not regular working hours

because I have a full time job 50 miles away during regular working hours. Come to think of it, so do all of my volunteers- we are giving up Saturday and Sunday free time.

[porphyrian]

15. You and your volunteers are the exception.

Most people are too tired after their work week to volunteer for anything, especially since they have to get everything done on the weekend that they weren't able to do during the week, and that doesn't even touch relaxation and entertainment. I'm not making excuses, just explaining the reason, and it is by design. It wasn't a conscious decision of average citizens to one day be so involved in the rat race that they couldn't be bothered by things on a larger scale, it was the strategy of corporate imperialists to deliver a complicit and distracted populace to their movers in government. If we were all paying attention and had time on our hands, there's no way in hell they could've gotten this far.

[undeterred]

17. In fact my vols are professional people

who you would expect to donate money but not time.

[porphyrian]

28. You're all extraordinary people. Take a bow. - n/t

[LSK]

6. not the Duckworth Campaign - its filled with 20somethings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7KDEXllsrE

[MrCoffee]

7. that might be the case in your district but it's not the case here.

[patrice]

9. Not around here.

i.e. in Cupcake Land.

For the last few years, I've noticed that they're a younger group.

[Norquist Nemesis]

19. LOL! Cupcake Land

Ain't that the truth! :rofl:

[patrice]

31. That's from Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas?"

In reference to Johnson County Kansas. He nailed that one!

[RayOfHope]

10. That's not been my experience at all

All of the people I know working/helping on campaigns are fresh out of college or in their early 20s.

[Cleita]

12. In my area, they aren't even middle aged but downright elderly.

Younger people are so much busier these days, some working two jobs, while trying to raise children. Also, most of the college aged children who are Democrats are also working their way through school, which doesn't leave much free time for them. However, the Republicans still have rich kids to work for them who don't have to work while getting an education.

[notadmblnd]

13. I don't know.. my 13 yr old goes with me. But you are right

most of us are over 40.

[gollygee]

14. Around here it seems to be either very young adults or seniors

I have trouble volunteering because I constantly have a young child with me.

[Exiled in America]

18. Campaign Manager right here, age 29 *waves*

Wait.. is that middle aged?? aaaaaaaaaaaaa!

[undeterred]

21. Well all the campaign staff we have are twenty-something

But the people spending hours walking the wards are 40plus. Absolutely no young people. Believe me, it would get done a lot faster if we had some.

[lies and propaganda]

20. shiiiit. here in AZ is was nothing but the under twenties

and it really sucked.
Being 26,im fine with the youngens. They just all dressed asinine and were the shittiest faces, imho, for the Democratic Party.

[saracat]

22. In Az it is only the 20 somethings who are "paid" .the workers are all

middle aged or older. And many of the kids just loaf. It has been that way forever it seems. But we do have some great kids.Just not many!

[lies and propaganda]

30. there wasnt anyone above 30 in the office i just worked in.

But youre righta bout the majority of people I saw were paid employees. i just found it unfotunate how many people were just doing it for the money, not giving a shit about who and what they represented.

[warrens]

23. Because it took that long to learn that activism works?

I was way too cynical in my 20s and 30s to think that knocking on doors did any good. I deliberately took my daughter around during the Kerry campaign so she could see that it does. We managed to take Wisconsin, which would have gone GOP otherwise.

But I never got that lesson when I was young. Politics was an old-people's game. We got a bunch of college and high-school kids at the very end, but let's face it, at 21, did you think about politics as much as you do now? I sure didn't.

[undeterred]

25. I volunteered for many other things but not politics

I can't remember an age when I didn't do something. I guess I am doing this now because I have a sense of urgency about our political situation. And its hard for me to understand why there aren't more people that feel the same way. Everyone should be able to do SOMETHING, even just once. It would take the exhaustion off of those of us who are giving every spare minute we can.

[ramapo]

24. Most young people don't care

My impression is that the vast majority of young people don't care, don't vote, and basically feel that the whole system is, both at the same time, out-of-control and doesn't really affect them.

My own two, aged 19 and 23, are unfortunately prime examples. They don't like BushCo but don't care much for any Democrat either. They basically see politics as a toxic wasteland.

There is no defining circumstance to force their involvement either, like a threat that they'll be drafted.

Those of us who are middle-aged can remember a time when there was some idealism and hope in politics. JFK, RFK, MLK, McGovern, Clean Water Act, etc. brings back a time when politics might've been used for some good, even during times of significant trouble.

Government has been sufficiently debased over the past 30 years so that those who have grown up during this time have little desire to get involved at any level.

Sad but true...

[spacemanspiff]

26. Everyone is so damn busy

I bring my children to political events, not soccer games....because what could be more important that saving our country right now?

If we the parents don't stand up now,there will be no free country left for our children to live in.

[TahitiNut]

27. Activate the draft ... and then watch that change.

For far too many, it's solely a matter of self-interest - and waiting to see what hand they get dealt in the social/marital/political/economic lottery before knowing what that 'interest' really is. Very few want to wear Rawls' "veil of ignorance."

"'Fair'? Fuck 'fair'! I want an advantage!!" :grr:

[kineneb]

29. not just an issue with campaigns

most service organizations (Rotary, Lions, etc.) are facing the same problem. I am one of the youngest people in my Rotary club and I am 48! Membership organizations have had difficulty recruiting younger members for about 10 years now.

Could be the economy and commute times, among other issues. Less time with families and general stress.

Yup, our local peace group is mostly over 60, with a smattering of younger folks. Guess they still remember Vietnam and see the similarities.