If young people could select our next Congress

(Crossposted at Vox Verax.)

As I have said, Bluestem Prairie is doing a terrific job in covering Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District (CD) race between incumbent Gil Gutknecht and DFL challenger Tim Walz. Minnesota Central is also chiming in with incisive analysis of various issues, including the candidates’ views on the proposed DM&E expansion, health care reform, Iraq and more. Between these two plus others, the race has been elevated in the online political community to the level of the more mainstream media-celebrated congressional battles, such as the 6th (Wetterling vs. Bachmann), the 2nd (Kline vs. Rowley) and the 5th (Ellison vs. his primary opponents and now Fine).Of particular interest to me on Bluestem Prairie’s website is the recent mention of Facebook’s Minnesota Election Pulse. That’s because I have twin sons in their first year of college, and I’ve watched them with great interest as they have become politically involved over the last several years.

I remember taking them out of school in 5th grade to see Sen. Wellstone when he came to St. Peter on a visit eight years ago. At that time my sons were very much into the history of the Civil War but not really attuned to politics. Yet I distinctly remember one my sons, Will, and Sen. Wellstone, seemingly about the same height, walking down the mall at Gustavus Adolphus College discussing trade policy. That Will knew anything about that subject surprised the heck out of me.

My sons’ lives went on as usual, as did mine, until that awful day in 2002 when the plane carrying Sen. and Mrs. Wellstone and several others crashed into the woods in northern Minnesota. That single event turned a switch on in Will’s life, and he has been politically engaged ever since, including working on my campaign for Congress in 2004 and Tim Walz’s over the last year.

On the subject of Facebook’s Minnesota Election Pulse Bluestem Prairie writes:

Some pretty impressive students supporting Walz, and the percentage of Walz supporters originally from or attending college in MN-01 is quite high.  This looks to be genuine grassroots for Tim Walz.

To be sure, a number of Tim Walz’s campaign volunteers have been top ranked in their high school classes, and at least two (that I know of) are National Merit Scholars.

Just looking at the online poll does not reflect the academic background of the poll’s voters. But the overall percentages present a telling story: If these Facebook contributors could vote today, they would prefer Walz over Gutknecht 69% to 31% (as of 9/17).

What does this say about the future of our country? Two things: First, that our top young people are becoming politically engaged, and second, that at least in the 1st Congressional District they show a clear preference.

It is unfortunate that our political system is so biased toward seniority