Why Young Americans are turned off to politics. [silence] welcome to the Westminster Town Hall 5 years we have engaged in public reflection an dialogue on key issue was our day from a ethical perspective all forums are free to the public and information on Upcoming Events have been found online at westminster. Org and westminster thf or like us at facebook an town hall forum. My name is tim anderson minister at the church located in beautiful Downtown Minneapolis and moderator of the forum its my pleasure today to introduce speaker jennifer lawless a professor of governor in washington, d. C. , and the director of the women and politics institute. She describes herself this way, im a 40yearold political junkie. Election day is my super bowl. [laughter] the sunday morning talk shows are my favorite reality tv, and my computer Search History shows that political wire. Com is my most visited website. This selfabout political junkie graduated from Union College in new york with a b. A. In Political Science and earned m. A. And p hollywood in Political Science from Stanford University with funding from National Science foundation she has conducted Extensive Research on elect folks focusing on gender in the process. Nationally recognized expert on women and politics and coauthor of the book it still tacks a candidate, why women dont run for office. Her latest book with coauthor richard fox is focus of todays presentation. Running from office, why Young Americans are turned off to politics. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming to the Westminster Town Hall forum dr. Jennifer lawless. [applause] youre up. All yours. Thank you. Cockroaches, headlights, colonoscopies, used car salesman, traffic jams, root canals, and donald trump. [laughter] what do all of these things have in common . Theyre far more popular thanked United States congress. [laughter] its true. In head to head matchup and National Random sample of americans said that they find that charming things that i just mentioned far more appealing than their representatives in washington, d. C. Now, the house and senate mic take solace in knowing they rate higher than playground bully, north korea and meth labs but to be perfectly honest margins were quite close. Not just cute little polls that find this to be the case, though. The Political Climate that has cull mill nateed in most negative attitudes towards congress that weve ever seen. Moderate of polling doesnt know what to do with these numberings. Not one in five voters trust the government to do whats right. Congressional approval hovers at around 10 . And senator john mccain even jokes that congress is down for staffers and blood relatives approving of the job they do. For decades they have found that although people have never been in love with congress, they at least support their own incumbent. But in 2014 that ironclad reality was turned on its head too. Last year, 60 of voters said that they supported replacing the entire congress including their own incumbent. And roughly half of people said that if we were to replace the entire congress that random people walking down the street, they would probably did a better job. Its hard to find any evidence of people that think washington is doing whats right right now. What are the consequences of a political system thats held in such lower regard . What are had implications for democracy when politicians are u viewed so ineffective and pll system so dysfunctional . How does this bode for the future of a democracy . And what disease it mean for future generationings . Well in a nutshell im going to argue that washingtons dreadful performance over the past two decades has taken a toll on Young Americans who have come to know politics through this spects call and see mr. Speakers and politician as pointless and unpleasant. They see leaders as corrupt and selfish and they have no interest in entering the political arena ever but before i lay out this argument, provide evidence for it, and at least speculate as to how we may be able to change this i have to come for the or something im a political junkie but as a twoyearold i was according to my parents obsessed with jimmy carter. I loved his name. I was completely enamored by responsibilities and i worried for his legacy. So far as any toddler could. By the time carter left the white house devastated as i was my political interest remained intact mesmerized in 1908 when the iran came to a close and embarked at the air force base. And i pulled level in the 1984 president ial election when my mother let me go into the voting booth with her. At age 12 i faced a very difficult summer vacation, i had to decide whether to hang out with my friends on watch the arcontra hearing i spent more time with hall than anyone else. By the time i was a junior in high school, i u now my way around a Senate JudiciaryCommittee Hearing like nobodys business i can resite questions targeted at hill. When my College Roommate kill home upset about with a breakup with a boyfriend i would be happy when bill clinton finished delivering the state of the union address. It was impressed that it was vital to stay a breath of current and government, it was no surprise that i became a Political Science major. It was no surprise that i got a ph. D. In Political Science and frankly no surprise that i would actually run for office. I might not have envisioned tag on a popular tin cup bent at a time when i wases a professor and had not yet received a tenure but no question that it was something that i would ultimately do an i was proud to do it. Ive thought that government was an effective way to solve a problem. If people who run for office have good intentions, that a political career is noble. And that there could be little satisfying than hearing and then heeding a call to Public Service so its from that orientation that richard fox when i both wrote this bock thats also why were both so disheartened by our results. In running from offings why Young Americans are turn off to politics, we present results of a National Survey we conducted of several thousand 13 to 25 year olds we asked about them attituding about mr. Speakers and Current Events. Career aspirations and political ambitions, and what did we find . We found that 89 of them, had already written off the idea of ever running for office. And frankly as difficult as it is for me to admit this, its hard to blame them. The current political system which is really only one theyve ever known has turned them off. Consider their First Political memory for older people we surveyed and interviewed that was the president lying to them wagging finger saying he did not have sexual relations with ms. Lewinsky other it was it be lying about mass disruption. Experienced a Government Shutdown they know only gridlock inefficiency and same sad song played over in the 24 hour news cycle and crazy to run for office. How do we arrive at this conclusion and what can we do about it . That is what had i would like to spend the next 15 minutes talking about. Let me begin with a sad state of affairs im incredible pessimism. Glass is always entirely empty so you should take my remarks from the way i give them. So in october of 2012 right in t of the president ial election we conducted a National Survey of 4200 high school and College Students so these were young people around the country. We asked them about their Political Attitudes and aspirations. The the following summer, we did hour long phone interviews with the random sample of 115 of them. And what im going to it demonstrate to you is no matter how we asked the question and analyze data story is the same. Todays young people have virtually no interest in running for offices. So we began by asking have you ever thought that someday when youre old or you might be interested in running for office . 89 said no. 11 said it was something that occurred to them from time to time. We said okay, even if it is never occurred to you think about it right now, would you consider running for office in the future . 93 said no. We then thought, okay, this is a problem. But its because these are abstract questions that weir asking so we presented young people with a couple of scenarios first we said to them if the following jobs all paid the same amount of money, which would you most look to be . And they could choose among a business owner, a teacher, a mayor of their town, or a salesperson. Mayor of their turn came in a distant third almost tied with salesperson. We then presented them with another set of options, again assuming that these jobs all paid same amount of money what would you most luke to be . A lawyer, a business executive, a High School Principal which had frankly is worst job in the world or member of congress. Member of congress wasnt close and came in dead last. 20 different jobs from lawyer to teacher, to journalist to doctor, to electrician with three political positions and we said check off any that you might ever be interested in thinking about doing. So this is a very, very low before and check off as many as they wanted. Out of these 20, mayor, member of congress, and president of the United States placed 17th, 8th an 19th on the list. The worst was the electrician next book will be why people dont want to be a electrician. Final amount to get at attitudes to running for office we asked them to tell us what they thought about running for office. Three quotes this is from Charlotte HighSchool Junior from texas. People in politics, theyre squirrely. They say theyre going to do somethings but they had dont to it. I dont think the to be part of that. College senior from new york within im going into farming. Politics is for people who like to bang their heads against the wall. Id rather milk cows than run for office. Franklin a college soft mother from iowa, by the time you are done with politickings your hair has turned gray. I want to keep my hair not gray. Id never run for office. Hard to consider more significant evidence of the fact this Generation High School and College Students today can think of little that is more unappealing than entering electoral arena as a candidate. Identifying this lack of interest in running for office is one thing, understanding its roots is another. Essentially, our argument is that the daily lives of young people dont involve politics and its not because theyre tuned out. Its worst than that. This is not just some naive lack of exposure to whats going in the world but consciencely making an effort not to be engaged because theyre turned off. When they encounter mr. Speakers they try to minimize exposure and shy away. And this happens in three different ways or maybe it is better to say for three different reasons. So let me just give you a brief summary of each. The first, has to do with family. Age the way they experience politics in the household. Let me just give you some key facts, now, remember if survey it was taken in the fall of 2012 in the middle of the president ial election, 75 of young people said that their parents never talk about politicses at home. 80 said that they have never had a political discussion with their parents at a meal. 50 said theyve never had a political discussion with their parents ever. 5 said they have a parent who ever suggest that they run for office. 2 said that they had two parents which suggested that they run for office. No matter how we look at these questions, its clear young people are not getting a message in their home that running for office is something they could consider and several of the made point about why they didnt feel that these conversations took place. A College Freshman said for example in my family we dont talk about political stuff. Washington and politicians are miserable. Theyre terrible in a million miles away. Why should we bother with that . Jane a high School Junior, my parents never wanted to talk about government stuff. They still dont. When it does come up, they quickly say that system is too broken Pay Attention to, its not worth our time or elizabeth a college senior, oh, we do talk about it. We have beg debates at dinner they start out debating about important issues but then winds up condemning whole for being so dysfunctional and ridiculous, in fact, we with then asked these young people well, what would your parents think if you told them that you wanted to run for office . And their answers were all politically correct they said my parents would want me to do whatever would mac me happy. But then almost followup with a sentence along lines of i cant imagine they would think that would make me happy or they would be shocked. Or i think they would be sad. They know i can be so much more than that. Now, these Family Dynamics matter because family is the most important socializing agent in peoples lives so young parents whos parents encourage them to run for office are five time mrs. Likely to have considered it. Young people who talk about politics on occasion are four times more likely than those who never have to consider running for offings and college and High School Students parents told them they could run are six times more like lie to have thought serious about that process, and problem, though, is that these families are few and far between. And why wouldnt they be gallop asked a National Random sample of adults about the honesty in et uxes of people who work in 22 different professions. That 80 of people for example, thought that nurses had high or or very high honesty. 70 said that they had pharmacist, teachers, doctors and military officer as. Politicians theyre a little bit worse fewer than 25 of americans rated local office hold terse such as mail your or city councilors on high on ethic and integrity that number cut in half down to 14 for state legislators, and member of congress ethical less than 10 of those surveyed. Only people that performed worse than members of congress were lobbyists. So parents with busy lives, many of whom are struggling to get by, likely see little upon the in discussing their families with with the failure in washington dc and campaign ad on the television screen. It is not a new phenomenon, these recent polls an surveys suggest that now is far worse than in previous generations. And our analysis mawks clear that the ten neuroof plucks is part of the reason and it is a consequences are also far reaching. The second reason, at school with their friends through the media, young people also shy away from politics. Let me start with those facts again, in high school, among High School Students, 65 report that theyve never had a confers with their had classmates about anything political. When we asked about 12 areas of discussion, young people mooght have with their friends, school crush, dating, sports, pooted, entertainment, just 17 said that they ever talk about politics. It came in 12th out of 12th on that list and website use reflecting similar pattern, social network, music, shopping, sports, entertainment, all garner far more attention from young people than any kind of political or current erchts website. And disengagement again is not by mistake when young people look around the an they look at washington, d. C. , they see and they reported to us contention and ugliness, thoughtful detect over issues, calm conversations about issues that made, are alien propositions to them. What theyre with their friends they dont want to argue or debate, they dont want to deliberate so politics is off a the table. But they can articulate these thoughts better than i can so again let me read you a couple of quotes this is rebecca a high school sophomore. Most of my friends are are big time texters. They dont care about things outside the texting world i dont know what that means. But thats what younger people do. We just dont care about politics we focus on things that matter, place where is we can make a difference. Ashley a College Sophomore from los angeles, if i bring up anything more specific with my friends than a simple fact look hey, obama won the election, my friends are like i dont follow and then that makes me want to tell them this is our country an they could care but then theyll think im being tag scientistic and well fight so i dont. He said it best nope we never bring up politics. Politics kills the mood so it is hard to argue with that perception we live in a time when had all National News all National News about politics is negative and combative in tone. It is almost as, though, theres no place for thought of the journal i feel or o positive news coverage. And when Media Outlets arent highlighting washington inability to get the job done theyre featuring political coverage but often amounts to partisan on both sides of the aisle predictively bashing one another. Fox news regularly treats audiences to hype bollic presentations of stories about Barack Obamas failures and liberal counterpart msnbc gleefully has stories bashing Republican Hous