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East Oregonian
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
MARCH: ‘We as a nation have resigned
ourselves to a life where kids go to school to die’
Continued from 1A
Logan Wroge/Wisconsin State Journal via AP
About 40 students from across Wisconsin march in
Madison, Wis. on their way to Janesville, Wis. as part
of a “50 Miles More” event to protest gun violence and
advocate for gun control Monday.
YOUNG VOTERS: ‘They’ve
got the energy ... passion’
Continued from 1A
dollars to ensure that young
voters’ passion and enthu-
siasm doesn’t fade before
the November midterm elec-
tions, when the Republican
Party’s control of Congress
will be put to the test.
“Other people look at
those young people and think
organizing them makes no
sense because they don’t
vote,” said Tom Steyer,
the billionaire hedge-fund
magnate-turned-liberal
activist who has committed
at least $31 million this year
to what is believed to be the
largest youth vote organizing
effort in American history.
“We really believe in this
generation.”
Past voting patterns show
how much work Steyer and
others have ahead of them.
Just 15 percent of eligible
voters between the ages of 18
and 20 cast ballots in the last
midterm election.
Still, the mobilization of
young people following last
month’s shooting at a Park-
land, Florida, high school
has raised the prospect of a
shift that could re-shape the
American political landscape
this fall — and perhaps for
much longer.
Student leaders from
Parkland
have
already
succeeded in keeping the gun
debate from quickly fading,
as is often the case after
mass shootings, though that
hasn’t resulted in any signif-
icant congressional action.
Hundreds of thousands of
people, many of them in high
school, participated in protest
marches across the country
Saturday. New waves of
protests are already being
planned for next month.
Their efforts are being
aided by powerful groups
that favor stricter gun laws.
Everytown for Gun Safety,
an organization backed
by
billionaire
Michael
Bloomberg, expects to spend
more money shaping the
2018 midterms than any
other election — and much
of it on youth engagement,
said chief operating officer
Matt McTighe.
The organization already
spent more than $1 million
to help student organizers
participate in last weekend’s
marches. They’re now
focused on helping high
school and college students
nationwide organize their
own “Students Demand
Action” groups, a spinoff of
the organization’s “Mom’s
Demand Action” against gun
violence chapters. Everytown
also helped young people
establish the non-profit group
that coordinated the weekend
marches, while in some cases
paying for nuts-and-bolts
items like sound systems and
stages.
“They’ve got the energy.
They’ve got the passion.
They don’t necessarily have
the resources or the policy
expertise,” McTighe said.
“We’re going to be investing
heavily in these students and
making sure they engage
in politics in every race and
every single district across
the country.”
Additionally,
groups
backed
by
Steyer,
Bloomberg and former Rep.
Gabby Giffords will launch
nationwide voter drives on
high school campuses in the
coming weeks. The opera-
tion, according to Giffords’
executive director Peter
Ambler, will especially target
“districts and states where
new young voters can have
the most impact.” Giffords’
group, like its allies, will also
devote significant resources
to sophisticated get-out-the-
vote operations targeting
young voters.
“They’re very powerful
right now,” Ambler said.
“I’m very excited to see what
they do with that power.”
Republican
strategists
suggest that the youth move-
ment could prove particularly
troubling for their candidates
in America’s suburbs, where
dozens of vulnerable GOP
House incumbents already
face a wave of Democratic
enthusiasm and skepticism
from moderate Republicans
dissatisfied with President
Donald Trump’s job perfor-
mance.
It’s less clear whether a
surge in youth turnout would
sting Republican candidates
in Senate races playing out in
rural states like North Dakota
and West Virginia, where a
fight over gun control could
motivate Trump’s most
passionate supporters as well.
Republicans are skeptical
that young voters, who
typically favor Democratic
candidates by large margins,
will stay interested.
“Motivation is fleeting,”
said Republican strategist
Chris Wilson.
While equally skeptical
about the short-term impact,
Republican pollster Frank
Luntz warned his party that
a mass migration of young
voters to the Democratic
Party could endanger GOP
candidates for years to come.
“There are a lot of dark
clouds ahead for Repub-
licans,” Luntz said. “The
impact of the youth vote isn’t
immediate, but it could well
have the greatest impact of
all.”
Young voters, with few
exceptions, have struggled to
maintain interest in politics
over the last half century.
In 1972, when the voting
age was first lowered to 18,
nearly 56 percent of eligible
18- to 20-year-olds voted,
according to an analysis by
the Center for Information
and Research on Civic
Learning and Engagement at
Tufts University. Participa-
tion has trended downward
ever since, with one excep-
tion being President Barack
Obama’s first presidential
election.
But in the first midterm
election of Obama’s pres-
idency, participation rates
for 18- to-20-year-old voters
regressed to just 18 percent.
“This energy we’re seeing
right now is in March. The
election is seven months
away. It takes a lot to keep
up this enthusiasm,” said
Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg,
director of the Tufts center.
She
suggested
that
interest groups and political
campaigns could help moti-
vate young people, as Obama
did in 2008, but young
voters are more likely to be
influenced by people they
encounter at home or school.
It’s also unclear whether
issues alone, even one as
powerful as gun violence,
can lead to lasting political
change. Kawashima-Gins-
berg’s center studied the
impact of high-profile ballot
issues that might appeal to
young voters — the legal-
ization of marijuana and
same-sex marriage — in past
elections, finding that such
social issues alone typically
had little impact.
Steyer, for his part, is
prepared to spend whatever it
takes to ensure young voters
don’t get distracted. His $31
million pledge, he said, is
simply “the floor” of what
he’s prepared to spend this
year.
“What we’re trying to do
is organize as well as possible
to make sure that they get a
chance to raise their voices,”
he said, “but also to make
sure their votes are counted
on Nov. 6.”
to vote. Organizers had
arranged for a booth nearby
for anyone who wanted to
register.
The voter registration
booth fit in with a theme
many of the students
espoused: thoughts and
prayers were welcome, but
only if they were accompa-
nied by action.
PHS junior Samuel
Attridge said before the
march that the high school
had provided an alternative
to recent student protests,
encouraging 17 days of
kindness instead of walking
out of school for 17 minutes
in honor of the 17 students
and staff who died at
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
High School in Parkland,
Florida. He said people
could be kind while also
advocating for new laws and
practices.
“Kindness is great.
Everyone should be kind.
I don’t think anyone in this
march thinks kindness is
stupid,” he said. “We’re just
more focused on legislation
that can make a difference
rather than hoping that
kindness will prevent
another school shooting.”
The march drew mixed
reactions from people
downtown. One man stood
on the edge of the gathering
crowd near the beginning
of the event holding a flag
depicting an assault rifle
and the words “Come and
take it.” At another point, as
students marched down the
street chanting “We want
change!” a woman walking
in the opposite direction
told them, “Give up your
cell phones.” At other
points, drivers passing by
waved or gave a thumbs-up
out their windows.
As Attridge emceed
Saturday’s march, he told
everyone gathered at the
park that the march was not
“anti-gun” or about bashing
a certain political party. The
only thing it was about was
urging adults old enough to
vote and run for office to do
more than “a couple of sad
tweets” to protect kids from
shootings.
“We as a nation have
resigned ourselves to a life
where kids go to school to
die,” he said.
Keyshawn Jackson and
Giovana Angel performed
a slam poem driving home
that same message, starting
off with a barrage of texts
between mother and son,
as the boy in the poem
texted his mother that
he was hiding under his
Staff photos by Kathy Aney
A counter protester showed up at the March for Our Lives on Saturday in Pendleton.
Samuel Attridge and
other student organizers
speak during the March
for Our Lives on Satur-
day in Pendleton.
Two youngsters take part in the March for our Lives
on Saturday in Pendleton.
desk, scared, as he heard
gunshots and screams.
“They tell us to run, hide
and don’t panic,” the teens
said in unison.
Kathy Perez said she
grew up with a turbulent
home life and school used
to be one place she felt a
sense of security. Now she
felt scared someone there
would pull out a gun and
start shooting.
Chen, too, told the
audience of adults she was
afraid to die at school.
Most high school students
are not old enough to vote,
she said, so they need adult
help to effect change.
Ellen Paulsen, 14, said
she was frustrated the
government was letting
more school shootings
happen as politics divided
the conversation.
“I didn’t know ‘children
shouldn’t be shot’ was a
controversial statement,”
she said.
After the speeches the
group marched to the court-
house, chanting “Protect
our youth! Protect our lives!
Our future, our rights!”
on the way there and “We
want change!” on the way
back. At the courthouse,
Democratic Congressional
candidate Jamie McLeod-
Skinner addressed the group
briefly, saying that adults
had failed the students and
that needed to change. She
urged everyone to talk with
others about their ideas for
preventing school shoot-
ings and to keep an open
mind even if they disagreed
with the ideas.
“To the children, please
find your voice and share
your ideas. Please be
patient with the adults,” she
said.
At the end of the march,
Attridge urged everyone
present to continue taking
action.
“Please
don’t
let
this movement die,” he
implored.
Over in Hermiston,
students
didn’t
come
together to plan a large-
scale March for Our Lives
event, but four people did
get together on the corner
of Highway 395 and Main
Street Saturday morning to
hold signs.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
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