Campaigns Need Public Financing, Biden Tells Iowa Students

[gateley]

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden talked candidly Monday with University of Iowa students about why low percentages of young voters fail to turn out and vote.

"It's not about access, it's about legitimacy," the Delaware senator said to 150 people gathered at the Iowa Memorial Union on the UI campus in Iowa City. "The truth of the matter is that you young folks look out there and see an electoral system that you think can be bought and paid for, and this turns you off because you feel inconsequential."

Biden argued that the single most important thing we can do to put an end to the influence of money in politics is to enact a public campaign finance law. Biden has been advocating this since 1974, when he first co-authored such a bill with Iowa Democratic Sen. Dick Meyer.

"The amount of money that has to be raised in political campaigns is obscene," Biden said. "And as they say in southern Delaware, `It ain't comin' from y'all. It's coming from people who have money.'"

"Do you folks want be in control? Do you want to make sure everything you do or say is as consequential as the Hollywood producer, or the multimillionaire, or someone who inherited millions of dollars?" Biden asked rhetorically. "With public-financed elections, nobody gets to go to the front of the line."

snip

Biden dismissed the assertion made often by people of his generation that the younger generation is not ready to take over.

"Give me a break. You're smarter than we are. More of your generation is engaged in volunteering and public service," Biden said. "I don't think your generation's problem is your lack of engagement, I think it's the lack of authenticity coming from your leaders and you're wondering what the hell we're doing."

snip


Pushed further, Biden was asked about the history of negative campaigning, more specifically, when he saw this shift in politics. Biden contends it started in the late '70s with the Christian Coalition, whose members no longer questioned politicians' judgment, but rather, their motives. The dynamics shifted to whether candidates were good or bad, instead of right or wrong, and if you don't agree with them, then you are immoral. "The right wing started it and the left picked it up," Biden said. "The more we engage in this the more we turn people off."

Biden pointed the finger at the Republican Party of the early 1980s, which told people that government doesn't matter. Biden argues this trend has carried in to the new century. "The Republicans want to convince people who don't have much that it doesn't matter to vote," Biden said. "They want to convince young people that it doesn't matter. They know that negative campaigning turns people off, and that's why they use it. I ask you, if you're a Republican running for office, do you really want a turnout of 55 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 30 showing up to vote?"

more... http://www.iowaindependent.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1592

[PatSeg]

1. Good article

and very timely, as I was just on a thread where people were discussing Obama and his appeal to young people. Wish I could see a video of this forum.

[gateley]

2. I love this:

I ask you, if you're a Republican running for office, do you really want a turnout of 55 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 30 showing up to vote?"

:rofl: