As college students, we are dead last in democracy. The 18- to 24-year-old voting demographic, according to the Federal Election Commission, accounts for a grand total of 5.1 percent of the national vote, with only 18.5 percent of those registered actually voting at all. In fact, we are so far behind that the nearest to us in terms of national impact, the 65-plus group, is at a solid 23.1 percent, with a staggering 61.3 percent turnout.
Of course, none of this information is new; since high school, we have been told that the numbers are plummeting for turnout, that it is pathetic and that the only way to effect a change in this bureaucratic monstrosity is to actually get out there and vote.
This is sage advice, but the truth is that we are only being told half of the story.
Voting is obviously a crucial element to having a say in the way things work. But what the talking heads often fail to acknowledge is the profound impact that "practical democracy" like protest, organization, information and education have on a society.
Practical democracy is the kind of democracy that walks the street (or lies down in it, as the case may be). This is the type of democracy that slaps politicians around and makes their insulated worlds of three-piece suits, limousines and baby-kissing crumble faster than a buttered croissant.
It is in this aspect of affecting change that college students do rather well by themselves.
Organizations across the United States have materialized on campuses, participating in rallies, providing information and making noise. College students, so long decried for having no sense of democracy or civic pride, are setting aside Grand Theft Auto for picket signs urging the administration to, among other things, give peace a chance.
The war at this point is all but inevitable, a fact many will point to as a sign that practical democracy has failed. The people who say this ought to open a book hypothetically titled "The Vietnam War for Dummies."
Anti-war activism on the large scale did not start with students lining the streets of Washington, D.C., when Lyndon B. Johnson was mulling over whether to send more troops in the 1960s. It started when those troops either did not come home or came home in boxes. The first shot is far from the death of the movement; it is only its teething.
Regardless of how an individual comes down on the issue of the war's legitimacy or necessity, no one can rightfully debate that vocal activism, lead by informed advocates, is a bad thing.
Ari Fleischer, in a now-infamous statement following Sept. 11, 2001, intimated that now is not the time for dissent. This is the attitude of the enemies of democracy, practical or otherwise.
The First Amendment is like a free general admission ticket into the arena of American political and social discourse, and finally, this generation of college students seems to be taking the offer.
There is a long way to go, but there are organizations that, despite obvious political agendas, do have productive suggestions for exercising practical democracy.
Foreign Policy in Focus (www.fpif.org) urges students to organize teach-ins, where things like the history of U.S.-Iraq relations are discussed, and why each side of the issue believes itself to be right. It also stresses that students should reach out to the community, distributing literature on the facts of war and its effects on the parties involved.
Education is the key, and that is the point on which all groups truly interested in a thoughtful, honest exchange of ideas agree. Activists, or people just curious, need to have their facts straight if they are to secure any legitimacy in the political arena. Facts are, of course, required, for as even the president of the United States discovered, simply repeating the same assertions will not sway opinion if it is not supported with thoroughly investigated, well-documented factual backing.
The immediate result of practical democracy is political vulnerability. There are almost 23 million people in America between the ages of 18 and 24, and if we all wrote an informed letter to a congressman arguing one point or another, regardless of the issue, there would be an immediate response. A bloc of that size cannot be ignored, but rather necessitates action. The politicians will not turn their backs so easily if their job security is threatened; instead, a flood of speeches will occur at campuses nationwide.
College students have the means for practical democracy. All that is required now is the desire and a sustained effort. After all, what good is freedom if you don't exercise it?
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
