Young Voters

Madonna may wanna make voters out of them, but young people probably won't line up at voting booths tomorrow in the same fervid way they line up for her concert tickets.The pop star, whose TV spots are part of a get-out-the-vote effort targeted at the young, may be in the same boat as the Gulf crisis and the faltering economy -- none is enough to send young voters flocking to the polls to exercise their newly aquired voters' cards."The local elections, I can't see how they'd affect us," said Akiba Covitz, a 22-year-old senior at St. John's College in Annapolis.

WASHINGTON -- In winning as a self-styled "different kind of Democrat," President-elect Bill Clinton fashioned a different kind of coalition than those Democrats have relied upon so heavily in the past.Preliminary analyses of the exit polls and election returns showed the foundation of Mr. Clinton's support was made up of traditional party blocs.For example, the Arkansas governor won more than 90 percent of the black vote, almost two-thirds of the Hispanic-American vote, a majority of union workers and three-fourths of the Jewish vote.

Is the state Senate about to confront Arnick II? That could be the case if senators once again thumb their noses at the public over abolishing their much-cherished $7 million college scholarship program.There probably is nothing in the State House more egregious to the public than this political giveaway. The entire notion of politicians mucking around in college scholarships is malodorous. Yet the 47 senators cling tenaciously to this perk.The underlying message is that senators are far better equipped to decide who gets a scholarship.

LOS ANGELES -- In Bill Clinton's seemingly never-ending quest for new television shows to conquer, his debut on Music Television -- MTV to its expanding audience in an estimated 55.6 million households -- turned out to be no challenge at all.If there was any apprehension that the rebellious young generation that has taken to profane rap artists the way Clinton's own took to Elvis would throw him one curve ball after another, it was soon dismissed. The under-30 set, which is supposed to have things on its mind much different from those bothering elders, mostly asked him the same questions the oldsters have been posing to him all this year.

Despite a multimillion-dollar advertising blitz from one challenger and an aggressive grassroots campaign from another, U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland remains among the safest incumbents in the nation as he runs for a second term, according to a new poll. Potomac businessman Rob Sobhani, running as an independent, has not cut significantly into Cardin's lead though he has pumped millions of dollars of his own money into the race. He may be helping the Democratic incumbent by siphoning some voters away from Republican challenger Daniel Bongino.

When he ran for president in 2008, Barack Obama said he didn't believe in a country divided into Blue America and Red America. But the "shellacking" the president and his fellow Democrats took in the 2010 midterm elections made clear that there sure is plenty of political tension between Grey America and Colorful America. By that, I mean there is a striking contrast between the older, whiter generation of Americans who turned two weeks ago and the younger, more racially diverse electorate that turned out two years ago. Before turning to the implications of this generational tension, let's examine the differences between those two electorates.

Young voters faced problems at polls It was great to see the column by Ray Martinez III and Avi Rubin on voting problems nationwide ("Voting system still needs fixing," Opinion Commentary, Nov. 28). But it should be noted that the problems here in Maryland were almost as severe. In Maryland, many young voters began experiencing problems well before they reached the polls. The voter registration forms require an ID number. While many voters use their driver's license number, the form says a voter can also use the last four digits of his or her Social Security Number as identification - and many students who do not have a Maryland driver's license do so. The state, unfortunately, did not process some of the forms that used the last digits of the Social Security Number in time for the election.

WASHINGTON -- When you think about it, the idea of rappers and wrestlers getting together to lure young people to the polls is not such an outlandish concept. After all, the two entertainment industries have so much in common: Each panders with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the overheated fantasies of teen-age males. Each operates in a pretend world. Professional wrestling pretends that it's a sport and a lot of rap is only pretending to be music. And, most important for our current discussion, each has superstars seen and heard by loyal young fans who don't want to see or hear much of anything else their elders have to say. It was upon this common ground that hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, co-founder of Def Jam Records and the Hip-Hop Action Summit Network, came together at the National Press Club this week with professional wrestling kingpin Vince McMahon, chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment.

A last-minute decision to bar 17-year-olds who register as unaffiliated or independent from voting in nonpartisan contests such as Howard County's school board election has angered and embarrassed county League of Women Voters officials. "I find this so outrageous, I'm beside myself," said Grace Kubofcik, a league co-president, who has been visiting county high schools to encourage 17-year-olds to register before the 9 p.m. Tuesday deadline. Some registered as independents, knowing that they would not be able to vote for a presidential candidate in the Feb. 12 primary if they didn't choose to be either Republicans or Democrats.

Last year, Barack Obama inspired legions of young people to become politically involved. Hordes of students in high school, college and graduate school knocked on doors and set up Facebook pages to garner support for a candidate who offered a fresh viewpoint, welcomed by our generation. The rallying cries of hope and change banded us together, making it cool to wear Barack Obama T-shirts and order Barack O-Bombs at the bar. But now, a year later, it seems this first foray into the reality of politics has doused the fire of my generation's idealism with a bucket of cold water.