nothin Student Pundits: Adults Don’t Vote Smart | New Haven Independent

Student Pundits: Adults
Can Be Dumb Voters

On screen, Linda McMahon was back calling Dick Blumenthal a liar. In the studio, teen pundits accused adults of letting ads like that steer their voting.

The re-airing of one of the countless TV attack ads from the fall campaigns took place inside a public-access studio last week as local high-schoolers took turns as political pundits — and offered a post-mortem critical of the way their elders choose their political leaders.

Melinda Tuhus Photo

The occasion was a taping of the program Twentyfirst Century Conversations. Host N’Zinga Shani shared the mic with Simms Sonet (pictured above), a senior at West Haven High School who had asked to sponsor a forum on this topic. Before the taping began, he explained that starting with President Barack Obama’s campaign, he had become intensely interested in politics. I noticed a lot of flaws” in the system, he said. He wanted to discuss them with his peers.

Those peers included three juniors from Wilbur Cross High School: Tomer Canaan, Julia Boughton and Ciara Moran.

Canaan said that as an Israeli citizen he won’t be able to vote in U.S. elections even when he turns 18. But he has a lot of opinions about American politics. Boughton (at left in above photo, with Moran) said she needs to know about politics when she is old enough to vote, so she might as well start now. Moran said she works on the school paper and, along with some other students, got to speak to Blumenthal after an appearance there during the fall U.S. Senate campaign. He listened to us,” she said.

The way they sounded, the students could be recruiting fodder for No Labels, the group that was born after the election and aims to steer campaigns away from attack rhetoric or ideological extremes. The panelists all agreed that adults vote too much along party lines, that they don’t even want to listen to a point of view different from the one they already hold. Instead, they concluded, adults just look for reinforcement of their existing views.

The panelists also criticized the attack ads, such as the ones reviewed on the show. The candidates didn’t say what they are for and what they plan to change,” Boughton said. They were more about attacking their opponent.”

After McMahon’s anti-Blumenthal ad, Sonet showed a Blumenthal ad attacking McMahon, which they thought was fair because she started it. But the negative campaigning was a turn-off in general, said Moran. It’s a deterrent to voting.” Sonet agreed, saying, Students at my school said, They’re both bad, so why vote?’”

Linda McMahon had more of a responsibility to tell us what she stands for because she had no record to run on,” Moran said, whereas Blumenthal had more than 20 years in public office that could be examined.

I supported Blumenthal because of his record,” Sonet said, but he attacked back and made it sort of a slander war.”

Shani (pictured) dropped in questions throughout the hour, like, What role do you think the media played in the election?” That sparked a discussion of the biases of news outlets like Fox and MSNBC (right- and left-leaning, respectively). Canaan opined, You can watch different stations and get everyone’s slant and decide for yourself” what you think about the candidates. But he added that most adults listen to and watch what they already agree with.”

People take democracy for granted,” was how Canaan (pictured below on left) summed up his view, after the students pointed out the various shortcomings of American democracy.

Amen!” Shani shouted, as her guest nailed one of her primary motivations for holding her Conversations.” We have not only the right but the responsibility to vote.”

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