Many people – including most of us here – were disappointed that such a large number of young people didn’t enrol to vote in the 2013 election. “Imagine the difference they might have made”, we reflect. And yes, many of us are also quick to lay the blame for the election outcome at the feet of those who didn’t care to vote. “But who is really to blame for the government we ended up with?” asks first-time voter Oliver Clarke. “Those who didn’t vote, or those who did? Who put them there?”
Well, election day is getting closer, the dreaded Saturday when we come crawling out of our squats and into our cubicles, handed pencil, paper, and power. For most of the Australian public this is a standard occurrence, one done with ease, boredom, and for a majority of people not too much thought. But for some, myself included, this election will be our first time voting, and the last time political negligence is accepted.
A bunch of us will be forced to lose our electoral virginity this 2nd of July, already being kicked out of our bars and now crammed into the halls of primary schools, the backs of buildings, and other little vote-up joints where we can get high on the responsibility given to us by the all loving, all including Australian government. It’s strange to be suddenly subsumed in with all the geriatrics that lost interest in politics decades ago merely because one has turned 18. It seems conflicted; to be kept out of virtually everywhere only a year ago, and then now, finally free from the torments of school, to be shoved in and out of pubs, bars, and universities, and then out of childhood and into the Australian political system.
I’m sure I can speak for a lot of voters, and not just the first timers, by saying that on the day we’ll still be undecided on whom to vote for. Turnbull is a selfie-taking, promise failing mute, while Shorten is a disgruntled little child who fumbles and mumbles to even get a sentence out. Who of these men are we expected to put the hopes of our future in? It seems like they were never our age, and have always been worn, weak-boned creatures flopping out their policies but never fulfilling them. This election sees probably the least relatable, reliable, or recognisable political figures to ever grace the Australian government. And a lot of people simply don’t care anymore.
Most voters will be getting their political coverage from Facebook advertisements and two-line tweets, and wouldn’t know the faces or even the names of the candidates if they didn’t have a laptop. With more political coverage there is less political interest, and the first time voters who authentically care about who runs this country are hardly ever taken seriously.
All the old, tired, forty-somethings, who cry about having to put on pants to go and vote, still see first time voters as children. ‘They can’t vote!’ they say, ‘they’re only just old enough to drink alcohol, how can we expect them to make responsible decisions?’
To all these old timey, intellectually stunted, stay at home parents; How can we expect YOU to make responsible decisions?
The fact that being between ages 17 and 19 one is still treated like a baby is a major contributor to this era of lazy political interest. There has been an oddly strong push for everyone to enrol on time for this election, not only from parents, but from peers. It seems that mid twenty year olds have already condemned themselves to the role of nagging ‘when I was your age’ grandparents. They post constant reminders to enrol online, link poorly edited, monkey-written articles on the importance of this election, and preach paragraphs of complete nonsense that we are meant to take their political advice. God, am I still in Kindergarten? Why is this sunglass wearing, vape-smoking stranger who graduated three years ahead of me suddenly telling me that I can make a difference, that I can be the change? Why don’t they change? People need to stop handing down their political failures to be fixed by the next generation, because down is where they’ll go, through endless generations and people and hands. We might see a little change, yes, but by then the people who started it will be long gone, and their followers drooling in retirement homes.
What I dread most about voting day is not the voting, but the people I’ll be doing it next to. I can envision something similar to the first day at pre-school, the old, ‘hardened’ voter taking my hand like a teacher and guiding it to tick boxes, then giving me a lollipop for a political job-well-done. And I can’t stand that. Before preaching to first time voters as an excuse to voice your WONDERFUL political ideals, remember you were a first timer too. They don’t, and never did, want to take advice from the smellier, lazier, sadder people who are the reason they are forced to vote in the first place. The 2nd of July will be an important day, yes, and we have to make a vital decision, sort of, but let everyone, the young included, form their own political ideas, or we will see the same, tired manifestos spinning around and around again.
Oliver Clarke blogs at confessionaljournalism.
