Vote. Or Else. Really.

A documentary is powerful when a wrong is exposed and the disenfranchised are given a voice.

What amazed me in American Blackout is the numerous instances of perceived, if not real, conflicts of interest. Katherine Harris part of the Bush campaign and counting Florida's vote? Blackwell part of the Bush campaign and counting Ohio's vote? Ohio registrations go up by 25% plus in some areas and there are less voting machines? AND BEST OF ALL? NOBODY (except those waiting online for hours) SEEMED TO CARE!!!

Cynthia McKinney brought up questions that nobody wanted to answer. Barbara Boxer brought up questions nobody wanted to answer. Instead of getting answers (though some "redresses" were made such as the provisional ballet) they are mocked "Earth to Barbara Boxer?" and in the case of McKinney, politically outmaneuvered in the primaries.

Obama's election was historic in that it was a perfect storm: New guy promising change, the disenfranchised relate to the new guy, economy is in the gutter and everyone hopes new guy can fix that. New guy was also smart in his use of technologies. As he did fundraising campaigns for others up for reelection he made sure to collect emails and cell phone numbers at each stop. By the time he decided to officially run for President he had a huge database of potential donors (especially the $5 kind) and, more importantly, voters. After announcing his candidacy at every event he asked participants to take out their cell phones call 10 people and tell them to vote. New guy definitely knew how to get the vote.

(BTW, Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin is a fascinating read)

Fast forward to the 2010 election results where Obama himself acknowledged a "shellacking". It turns out "[a]ccording to exit poll data, under-30 voters were the only age demographic to vote for Democrats, with the youngest voters (18-24 year olds) giving Democrats a 19-point margin." Whether there is some bias to this quote (it was published by Rock the Vote folks after all) it's certainly not as gloomy as the media made the youth vote appear. Agreed, the youth turn out wasn't at the 65-70% levels, but neither was any other group.

See? Look at these kids all feisty and getting voters registered.

So there you go, it wasn't the disenfranchised youth that allowed the Tea Party invasion. It was the disenfranchised middle-agers that will allow DADT to continue and the dismantling of access to health care (just wait for that arthritis or chronic high blood pressure to kick in - those meds are seriously expensive!) and best of all? a $700 billion rebate to the very rich.

MTV host Andrew Jenks claims with technologies such as Twitter and Facebook today's youth is used to be engaged all the time. It's about time that politicians understand that and stop tapping the youth only during the presidential election.

Now how do we fix the voting machines?