Bill Clinton: Cultivating the Young Vote
Michael Peckham
In the 1992 presidential election, Bill Clinton and George Bush competed for the oval office, however Clinton used his youth and energy to campaign to the youth and those in seek of change. Bill Clinton was able to win his first presidential election by utilizing many of the lessons taught by Cicero. Clinton was able to become president by appealing to the young people, appearing to be young, exciting, and appearing to focus on their needs (education etc), while at the same time blaming the issues of the modern day family and young person on the republican party, blaming them for unemployment/job loss and poor education/graduation levels.
Clinton appealed to the young people of his time by “being personable and... promoting” himself to the young voters as Cicero advised, appearing on television shows and playing saxophone for millions to watch, talking to young people on MTV (in a later election) and even pushing his way to the cover of the College Edition of Rolling Stone magazine. Clinton made sure to appear to be an energetic, exciting, and likable person, posing a contradiction to the aged Bush Sr. who represented the Republican party. Clinton made himself appear, cool, young and likable to the young people in 1992, helping make a connection to them and capture their votes.
Clinton also made sure to promote himself to the public, and especially to the young people, in his “Plan for Excellence in Education”, making sure to focus on the “gaps in American education” from the previous republican president, his opponent. While at the same time Clinton also made sure to present his experience in the overhauling of education system in Arkansas, and his plan to make the United States offer the best education and jobs for the young people of his time.
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Clinton also attacked the republican party, and his opposing candidate, by telling the young people the flaws of the Bush's previous term in office. Clinton reminds the populous the republicans had tried to lower college loans in one of his television ad’s, again reminding the youth of why not to vote for his opponent. Yet again continuing to take the advice of Cicero, he took care to “assure the common people that you have always been on their side”, reminding the young people of his “more than 11 years... on the front lines of the battle to revolutionize, revitalize, and reform education”. By putting to use the power of young people in not only their voting power but their power to use their energy to help capture the presidential office.
As the election eventually turns out, the gap in the young vote, being 13% and the minority vote, helped Clinton seize the election, he took the advice of Cicero and was able to take the office in 1992. Without utilizing the many lessons taught by Cicero, seizing victory in the election would have been extremely difficult and likely impossible.
1992
|
Group
|
Clinton
|
Bush
|
Perot
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||
All Voters |
Pct.
|
43%
|
37%
|
19%
| |
| |||||
RACE
|
White
|
87
|
39
|
41
|
21
|
Black
|
8
|
83
|
10
|
7
| |
Hispanic
|
2
|
61
|
25
|
14
| |
Asian
|
1
|
31
|
55
|
15
| |
| |||||
AGE
|
18-24
|
11
|
46
|
33
|
21
|
25-29
|
10
|
41
|
36
|
23
| |
30-49
|
46
|
41
|
38
|
21
| |
50-64
|
20
|
43
|
39
|
18
| |
65 & over
|
13
|
50
|
39
|
11
| |
| |||||
PARTY
|
Democrat
|
38
|
77
|
10
|
13
|
Republican
|
35
|
10
|
73
|
17
| |
Independent
|
27
|
38
|
32
|
30
| |
| |||||
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
|
Liberal
|
21
|
68
|
14
|
18
|
Moderate
|
49
|
48
|
31
|
21
| |
Conservative
|
30
|
18
|
64
|
18
| |
| |||||
Bibliography
Bill Clinton. Photograph. allpostersimages.com. July 1992. http://cache2.allpostersimages.com/p/LRG/ 18/1870/9YX8D00Z/posters/seliger-mark-bill-clinton-rolling-stone-no-639-september-1992.jpg. "Bill Clinton Saxophone 1992." Youtube.com. Video file. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTkUeb6zQFA. Clinton, Bill. "The Clinton Plan for Excellence in Education." The Phi Delta Kappan 74, no. 2 (October 1992). "I believe in a place called hope pin." Photograph. Ebay.com. http://i.ebayimg.com/t/ BILL-CLINTON-Campaign-Pin-Political-Pinback-Button-1992-/14/ !Bi-3Obg!Wk~$(KGrHqEH-CEEsZidQOLHBLRlSY)V3!~~_35.JPG. "1992 Bill Clinton Campaign Ads (around October 1992)." Youtube.com. Video file. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoBFL6iwid4. Ropercenter.uconn.edu. http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/elections/how_groups_voted/ voted_92.html#.UHa0mMXA9oF.
I see many connections between Clinton's campaign and Obama's campaign. Both candidates use there age to appear vitalized and cool, drawing upon the youth vote to push them into the presidency. For example the parallel in Clinton playing the Saxophone, and Obama going on Jimmy Kimmel, or Obama singing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your connections, appearing young and energetic in the elections has often helped break the appearance of the candidates being "some stiff in a suit" and creates an image that helps all voters, not just the young feel like they can connect to them, gaining their votes.
DeleteI can draw connections to Clinton's charisma and appeal to young voters and my own case study of Barack Obama. I feel that they both were very aware of current technology at the times of their elections and the needs of young people. Clinton appeared on MTV while Obama used Twitter and Youtube all influential medias that are directed to young people. Another election that could be relevant was JFK's 1960 election in which he uses television, a new media at the time. I think these are examples that the youth votes is an influencal factor in elections but in order to earn this vote candidates must use current medias and technologies. I was wonder does any one disagree with this or have an example of the youth vote not being a important factor.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that Clinton offers voters a copy of his plan in one of the advertisements shown in your second video. Today, candidates give many different opinions on many different issues, but they often avoid providing clear, concise responses, afraid to offer up a real plan and lose votes. I thought it was interesting that Clinton won the votes of 83% of African Americans and 61% of Hispanic voters. The saxophone video shows how Clinton seemed cool and hip, this was especially important because his performance was in front of a young audience, which helped him secure added votes.
ReplyDeleteAlex Siber PolySci Green
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with Tom, as the connections between Clinton and Obama's respective campaigns are abundant. Echoing Tom, Bill's campaign focused greatly on the young voters much like Obama, and both were able to attract vast numbers of young people who otherwise were not going to vote for president. For instance, Obama has been able to appeal to many young voters through Hip Hop, occasionally bringing up certain rappers such as Nicki Minaj and securing popular artists such as Jay Z, Common, and Beyonce to perform or appear at various White House events, much to the pleasure of Fox News!
Connecting to my own study on FDR, both made extensive efforts to travel the nation and talk to many different kinds of people. Evidenced by Clinton's travels, visiting talk shows and even answering people's questions on MTV, FDR, too, traveled to many different places: he traveled 13,000 miles by train alone, and made great use of radio.
I think all our case studies show that being approachable and friendly is crucial for a campaign. Johnson, similarly to Clinton and FDR, travelled thousands of miles to meet and talk to people. The voters don't like to see a candidate who is distant or withdrawn, and those candidates rarely win.
ReplyDelete