Young Obama voters stay in the game by lobbying for policy changes

From TheMatadorOnline.com newsroom:

By Laura Isensee
The Dallas Morning News

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ Backpacks on the floor, dozens of Texas college students crowded into the atrium of a Senate office building and circled around an aide to Sen. John Cornyn.

The subject was legislation. But this was no school tour: These students came to Washington to lobby.

"Can we count on the senator to stand as a voice in Congress for capping carbon emissions?" asked Jacob Bintliff, a 21-year-old University of Texas at Austin senior who sported a khaki blazer, shiny tie and purple bandana around his head.

The Texas students joined some 10,000 other youth on Capitol Hill in March to push for climate action, in what organizers called the second-largest lobbying day in the nation's history. (The fact that a freak snowstorm hit the same day hardly fazed them.)

The event gives some clues how young voters who helped propel Barack Obama to the White House are trying to shift their influence from the campaign trail to the policy realm. It's a tough task _ shaping legislation is often a professional pursuit involving millions of dollars the college students don't have.

But they're trying to fill the gaps with the tools they do have: progressive issues that move young people; old-school techniques like Capitol Hill visits; civil disobedience when necessary; and a heavy dose of social networking tools such as Twitter.

Youth organizers believe their cohort earned a louder voice in Congress on Election Day last year. Youth mobilized in the campaign, with turnout slightly higher than four years before, and young voters made up a bigger share than usual in some key battleground states. And about two-thirds voted for Obama.

"This is the first time we can go to the political table and flex our muscle," said Praween Dayananda. He helped organized the 160-strong Texas contingent at the event and pointed out this year Cornyn's office was more receptive than last year.

Texas A&M senior Adrienne Jones, who used her own cell phone to make voter turnout calls for Obama last year, trekked to Washington.

"This is our movement. This is our time to make change in the world. I want to be a part of it," said Jones, a 23-year-old from Dallas.

Confidence is key for youth to engage in policy-making, said Peter Levine, who directs research at Tufts University's Jonathan Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. Young people have to believe they're able to make a difference.

Levine's extensive research on the "Millennial" generation finds that, compared to previous generations, twentysomethings are more liberal, trust Congress more and volunteer more.

But anyone _ young or old _ who wants to engage in policy-making faces serious challenges, said Levine and others who promote civic engagement.

First, there have to be opportunities to engage. Traditional methods _ like writing, emailing or calling your congressman _ can be superficial and easy to manufacture on a large scale.

"There are so many people doing it, that every single individual letter ends up counting very little," Levine said.

Then there are institutional barriers: pressure from interest groups, fundraising difficulties and partisanship, said Joe Goldman, vice president of citizen engagement at AmericaSpeaks. The nonprofit group was started by a former Clinton administration official who wanted to close the gap between citizens and government decision-making.

"People want to participate but they only want to do that if they're actually going to be heard," Goldman said. And youth, he contends, have often been forgotten in the process.

Adding to the challenge, young people have few political groups with the legal status to lobby, said Matt Segal, the young executive director of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment.

Plus, "money talks in this town," Segal said.

To help remedy that, Segal's group may merge with two or three other organizations, so they can have a nonprofit arm and a legislative advocacy arm.

"We're not organized, not powerful enough. We need to do more than just blogging and Facebook posts," Segal said.

For the Texas students who trooped to Washington, the lobby day was just a start. Next on the agenda: meetings with their representatives at home and a statewide energy conference in Austin this weekend.

They're already learning about ways to send their message. Before a final photo op with Cornyn's aide, the group had something for the senator: a plastic green hard-hat slapped with a sticker "Get to Work!"

___

If the "Millennial" generation is able to put its stamp on government policy, what might that look like?

First, don't expect a narrow agenda focused only on college students' issues, said Hans Riemer, who was key in organizing youth voters in the Obama campaign and now works with AARP in Washington.

"We don't want to ghettoize them," said Riemer, adding that young people would be involved in issues ranging from the environment to health care.

Also, watch for Millennials to develop new ways of influencing policy, said Ian Storrar, with Moblize.org, which works to get young people involved in policy at all levels of government.

Storrar, 27, predicts his generation will not follow the traditional, top-down approach to political organizing. Instead, individuals will be able to share ideas and organize action through social networking, rather than wait for direction from leaders of a group.

_Laura Isensee

___

© 2009, The Dallas Morning News.

Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.