Fw: The vanishing voter,media & politics

[Dana ACLP]

----- Original Message ----- From: Dana ACLP To: Freedom Edu Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 12:59 PM Subject: The vanishing voter,media & politics Adams County Libertarian Party 254 N. 7th Ave. Brighton CO. 80601 303-637-7964 / [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tom or Dana Wagenhoffer Okay, I am going to try to make this simple for you all to understand so you will know what my idea is about. Attached you will find 1file one called �soft news� & then some links that you could review to understand my idea. Please read this information. I know that the first address is a book & it cost�s 25.00. It also list�s what they found to be the problem with retaining voters. http://www.vanishingvoter.org/ It gives you insight on what they found to be the problem with the vanishing voter. These are the thing�s we need to look at before creating educational studies so that we do it right the first time around.   that the weakening of the political parties as objects of thought and loyalty has reduced the incentive to participate, particularly among lower-income Americans; that modern campaign techniques are a turn-off for some citizens who otherwise have an interest in public affairs;            that attack journalism has eroded trust and interest in partisan politics, particularly among young adults; that soft news has reduced the level of election coverage which, in turn, has reduced the frequency with which Americans think and talk about the campaign; that the frontloading of the nominating system depresses not only turnout but election interest, information, and conversation in states with late-scheduled contests; that the declining audiences for election telecasts are in part a function of sharp cutbacks in the broadcast networks� coverage, which has reduced the number who �inadvertently� tune to these telecasts; that registration closing dates and poll closing hours continue to keep some Americans from exercising their right to vote; and that Electoral College strategies serve to depress turnout and other forms of involvement (for example, election-related conversation) in non-battleground states.   The book�s concluding chapter includes policy proposals that, if instituted by the parties, candidates, the media, and policymakers, would increase campaign involvement, not only on Election Day but throughout the course of the campaign. http://www.vanishingvoter.org/ This site has a lot of information that we can use to appeal to the vanishing voter.   We will need to appeal to lower income voters, change our campaign techniques so that we become appealing to those that no longer are appealed by our candidates techniques. And to make changes based upon the knowledge that we will contain before progressing into the educational arena.    I could not send the "soft news" file via my e-mail it has filters on it through my provider. Here is the link to view soft news   http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/press/soft_news_011201.htm Next I asked you to read & review �soft news�, this explains why we have a disinterested population of voter�s today. Soft news is used to keep ratings up, and keep the younger generation entertained, b/c these young adults spend money.   If you read the data in this report you will also find that in 1960 during the presidential debates 60% of households had there T.V. sets on but in 2000 the amount of households that had there T.V. sets on was less then 30% . Therefore we could be using this data to create the  kind of educational issues that we dream of creating. Use of this data will give us a �customer� to market this information to, will allow us to make changes to material before it is presented, and allow us to reach our market which in Colorado is the 32.7% of the Voting Age Population that is not registered to vote.   I asked you all also to review the Voting Age Population of the United States, & the State of Colorado. At this address http://www.vanishingvoter.org/graphs/vi-current.shtml /go to age breakdown at the top of the page.  You will see by reading these charts that the VAP (voting age population) that we must reach is between the ages of 18thru29 this is who has lost interest in politics, candidates, the issues, and lost interest in ever beginning to vote. This is our customer & our job is to seek out how we can appeal to them, how do we cause interest in us & our ideals?   We will get them registered & keep them registered. And I believe we should mull this data over & over til� we know exactly what is wanted. We will have to ask some tough question�s to ourselves before we should proceed. Like how do we create the appeal towards our cause? How do we reach lower income voters, &the younger generation? So I think I covered what I thought about the information provided and now I ask this of you: What can we do to change the first fact�s provided : On why we have the �vanishing voter�? How do we become more appealing? And how do we want to implement our education through art, video, t.v., booklet, and what is the content that we will provide to spark the interest we already know we have lost????   How do we interest low income voters? And what techniques can be changed in campaigning? How do we become more voter friendly? And if we use all of our resources which are indeed numerous & free in this internet age. As well as the Public Broadcasting System we can create the changes needed to change our numbers into the numbers we need to see (40 million at least). And for those of you who don�t know me very well. I am a dreamer, and I always dream big. So let�s get to dreaming up some fantastic data to market to our VAP customer�..   Please continue to review this site as it holds data we can use to get from point A to point B.    http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/presspol/index.htm   Thank You, Dana