Tom Friedman: The Clueless American?

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman's recent piece on "Generation Q" has sparked off a fresh round of blogosphere disgust over how clueless he is.

In case you missed it, Friedman decried college students' lack of outrage over contemporary issues. He wrote:

America needs a jolt of the idealism, activism and outrage (it must be in there) of Generation Q. That’s what twentysomethings are for — to light a fire under the country. But they can’t e-mail it in, and an online petition or a mouse click for carbon neutrality won’t cut it.
They have to get organized in a way that will force politicians to pay attention rather than just patronize them.

Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy didn’t change the world by asking people to join their Facebook crusades or to download their platforms. Activism can only be uploaded, the old-fashioned way — by young voters speaking truth to power, face to face, in big numbers, on campuses or the
Washington Mall. Virtual politics is just that — virtual.

Did Mr. Friedman hear about the YearlyKos meeting this summer, whose audience was courted by most of the major Democratic presidential contenders?

Has he read the stories about how Republican presidential contender Ron Paul's supporters have used Web 2.0 applications to bolster the candidate further up into the national radar, and to provide him with enough money to make pundits sit up and take notice?

Has he heard about the Ditch Mitch campaign, one of whose participants was also responsible for bringing John Edwards to his President-Bush-supporting hometown of Columbus, Kentucky?

Perhaps he should have attended the Facebook Political Summit that happened earlier this week in Washington DC and talked to some of the attendees. Or taken a look at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Facebook ad campaign targeted at college constituents in 41 swing districts in the 2006 congressional races. (Democrats won in 38 of the very competitive 41 districts.)

What Friedman doesn't get is that students and other young voters are politically active -- they're just more efficient and organized than their predecessors.

To be sure, youth organizers acknowledge that just sitting around in front of your computer isn't enough. Online applications are just one element of a bigger picture.

"Research and recent history both tell us that these tools alone will not actually get young people to the polls," writes Young Voter Pac executive director* *Jane Fleming Kleeb in a recent blog postand newspapereditorial. "Such techniques may excite or inform them about a given candidate but they will not, by themselves, secure the youth voting bloc necessary to win unless campaigns also engage them personally at their homes and hangouts."

Friedman's column has already sparked off a letter-writing campaign from this student group concerned about global warming, and a call to prove him wrong.

"One of the very things that he says students should be doing today -- asking all of the Presidential candidates what their plans are on key issues such as global warming -- is going on right now," says Ellynne Bannon, Student PIRGs' New Voters Projectdirector. It's "part of a huge national effort: The Student
PIRGs' New Voters Project *What's Your Plan? *campaign."

She further explains:

To date more than 200 student volunteers have engaged in 65 face to face conversations with the Presidential candidates at photo-ops, fundraisers, and town hall meetings across the country to ask them what their plans are on key youth issues such as global warming college affordability, financial security and health care.

We've met with all of the major Presidential candidates multiple times to ask about their plans and we'll continue to ask these important questions all the way through Election Day 2008.

While the new social networking present new ways for students to communicate and to add to more "traditional" organizing, I think that there is plenty of evidence that young people [are] not apathetic or content to sit back, but instead are at the forefront of some very exciting social change.

* Since 2003, student volunteers, youth and interns working with the Student
PIRGs' New Voters Project have registered more than 600,000 18-30 year olds to vote and made 650,000 personalized voter turnout contacts to turn young people out to the polls.

... Surveys show that youth turnout (18-29 year olds) in 2004 rose 9 points over
2000 turnout.

*
Students across the country were critical in helping to pass federal legislation that will cut student loan interest rates in half--which will save the typical student borrower $2,300- and boost college scholarships for millions of students.

More than 20,000 students participated in this grassroots effort.

*
Last year, the California Public Utilities Commission approved a $3.2 billion solar program that will create a million new solar homes and businesses over the next ten years and make California the world leader in solar power.

CALPIRG students played a vital role in generating thousands of comments, signing on approximately 60 faculty experts to a letter, generating media through educational events and convincing key legislators through direct advocacy.

Perhaps, as the New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg noted earlier this year, the face of activism has changed so much that it's just not recognizable anymore.

Tom Friedman photo: Charles Haynes
Edwards Photo: Circulating