I remember the early 90s when various organizations were running their televised anti-smoking ads. Where smoking was once the sort of thing idolized cool kids did behind the playground, it had suddenly become gross and wasteful.

With what little connection I still have to the youth culture these days, I see a similar transformation (finally) occurring in younger voters. In a number of conversations you’ll hear someone make the same old argument: “Oh, my state always leans X anyway. Why should I vote?” But instead of agreement, it seems a lot more people these days are putting the pressure on the apathetic. I’ve seen twenty-somethings literally get disgusted with each other over this.

Of course I take the stance that you should always vote with your heart. The idea that one’s vote “doesn’t count” just because he or she lives in a more Democratic or Republican state convinces a citizen to discount the validity of his own views. This type of person knows little more about the way their country is run than water-cooler chatter and evening news yammering.

I vote because if I didn’t I would not be doing my civic duty. I would not be making a record of who I feel should be in charge. Or at least because I love to criticize my elected officials without being a hypocrite.

George Carlin once said, “If you have selfish ignorant citizens, you have selfish ignorant politicians.” Basically he said people have too much extra money to care about our government. I wonder if the downward trend in our economy is inversely proportional with the upward trend in young adult voting.

According to a CIRCLE study presented in civicyouth.org, the 2006 elections had a large increase in young adult voters (ages 18-29):

• Senate - 60 percent VS 33 percent
• House of Representatives - 58 percent VS 38 percent
• Governor - 55 percent VS 34 percent

CIRCLE also has a study about young voters in the 2004 presidential election, which they say was up 49 percent VS 40 percent in 2000.

It seems to me that excess and apathy go together like Garfield and lasagna. Not so big when that lasagna is eating you, eh? Now that the economy is in tatters, will people realize that all we have left is our pride and willpower?

So get out there, learn who you can kick out of office, and vote. But don’t take it from me, here’s George Carlin: