Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

LIVE from Pittsburgh: What's the best way to empower young progressives?

Hello everyone! As you've probably read by now, I'm with Andrew in Pittsburgh for Netroots Nation 2009. Our plan is to go to as many different panels as we can so we can take in more of the convention. So while Andrew was at Scaling Obama, I attended a panel about empowering progressive youth.

The panel featured many youth leaders who came together to talk about how far the young people have come, but also what challenges are ahead.

One of the core beliefs that young progressives share is that we're all in this together, and we have to think about our impact on others before we act. Thus, we're not focused on policy directions that will help us get ahead, but rather how proposed legislation will affect our communities.

The panel suggested that this philosophy is very different than the philosophy of young progressives from bygone decades. Many of today's decision makers are the people who grew up during the sixties and seventies, and they respond to different message than the new generation. In other words, a message that makes sense to a baby boomer may not resonate at all with a millennial.

Naturally, young progressives are the ones who know how to reach other young progressives most effectively. Unfortunately, few young activists have the kind of resources that established progressive groups (such as unions have). Young people just don't have the money to pay for projects they want to do. And, when everyone sits at the decision making table, young people often have no voice.

But where the youth movement does not have the money, we certainly have the people. By 2012, an astonishing twenty five percent of the voter population will under thirty six, although the promise of greater democratic participation is unlikely to be fulfilled without an increased emphasis on civics in our schools.

People aren't going to care about issues if they're not exposed to them. Hands on political education is critical to getting youth engaged.

The panel believes that young people need to realize three objectives in order to succeed in giving the progressive movement the strength it needs: (1) Train and equip new leaders, (2) develop plans of action based on our values, and (3) acquire the funds necessary to implement those plans.

Gee, sounds like what we're doing here at NPI...

I'm looking forward to more panels and the keynotes. I'll post again soon with more reflections on the convention.

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