Poli Sigh is a weekly column featuring an analysis of issues that matter to us as students, accompanied by the personal impact of these issues on the author as a Northwestern student.
The election is over and Americans on the left and right have accepted its results. But campaigning doesn’t seem to have ended. President Obama has continued with the publicity stunts and speeches. And the primary targets appear to be millennials.
Voters under 30, or the millennials, showed their support for President Obama once again by heading to the polls. Sixty percent of them voted for Obama, while only 36 percent voted for Romney. Evidently, young people are still Team Obama.
I definitely enjoy and appreciate these efforts. It’s moments like those that I often see going viral on Facebook. I am guilty of sharing the Obama-Maroney “not impressed” photo. If it gets my peers excited about our president, it definitely has merit.
As a first time voter on Team Obama, I question the necessity of his numerous appeals to young people. I voted for Obama because I agree with his policies and approved of his first term in office, not because of his singing voice. Even though young people are arguably the most impressionable of all demographics, I think these cutesy moments need to be taken with a grain of salt.
I love that we live in a country in which our president is encouraged to sell himself as much as his policies. It is definitely an inherently American principle to think of our president as down-to-earth and relatable. Obama’s likability campaigns are nothing out of the ordinary, but people assuming it is key to win over young voters is flat out wrong. Everyone I know, young and old, relishes these sweet moments. Even if Obama is trying to appeal to a younger set, he is appealing to us all.
I’d like to think I represent the average Obama-loving millennial when I say I am better and smarter than campaign managers would like me to be. I vote with my head, not my heart, and I’d hope most young people do the same. I love Beyoncé and Jay-Z (and Blue Ivy!), but their endorsements are not going to affect the way I vote. Obama can pose with as many cute children as he wants, but that is not going to divert my attention from his response to the Petraeus resignation. To assume that young people gravitate towards the cute and cuddly more than any other demographic is insulting.
These likability initiatives have worked on me, but I am still waiting to see some of the spunk and charm translate into policy implementation. The American people, especially the millennials, have confirmed that they like the president. The repeated attempts at bipartisanship prevalent in Obama’s first term will hopefully be less of an issue. Obama has no problem singing, dancing and cracking jokes so I encourage him to hold nothing back these next four years. I voted for the full package, and so I can only hope that’s what I will get.
Now that the election is over, the American people are getting a break from incessant election coverage and loaded political stories. They are certainly entitled to some fluff pieces, but I hope this doesn’t divert attention from the important issues that are at hand as Obama’s second term approaches.