In this article:
George P. Bush on why the 20-somethings don't vote
Also:
February article with Karenna Gore

"We are incredibly socially conscious and deeply passionate about a great many issues -- just not the ones the candidates are touting."

	Today, USA WEEKEND introduces Lisa Ling as the magazine's newest contributing editor. Ling, 27, is co-host of The View, ABC's daily morning talk show, with Barbara Walters, Star Jones, Joy Behar and Meredith Vieira. At 27, Ling has the credentials of journalists twice her age. Though the youngest on the show, Ling is hardly the least experienced. She started working in TV at 16, co-hosting a magazine show for teens. By 18, she was traveling the globe as a reporter for Channel One News, the in-school news program broadcast nationally. Here, she files her first story for us, her take on why you may not see many of her fellow Gen Xers at the voting booth on Election Day.
	Lisa Ling's Generation (a k a voters ages 18-34)
	Represent 1/4 of voting-age population, or about 60 million people 14% have visited a candidate's Web site If possible, 63% would vote on the Internet In 1996, 54% voted for Clinton, 30% for Dole and 16% for Perot
	Sources: Gallup Poll; Youth Vote 2000; Third Millennium, neglection2000.org; News Study Group Publications

et me be frank: I just don't care.

For as long as I can remember, I have always made diligent efforts to remain informed of the important issues that face our country.

For seven years, starting when I was 18, I had the opportunity to work for a TV news program for middle and high school students across the United States. During my time there, I traveled to more than 30 countries, covering everything from narco-trafficking in Colombia to the civil war in Afghanistan. Whether it was a story of the deployment of the Mars Pathfinder or the debate over lifting economic sanctions on Iraq, at a young age I was definitely interested.

As we embark on the first presidential election of the 21st century, my concern over gun control, abortion and free trade has hardly waned. But something else has: my faith in our political system to do anything meaningful about those issues.

Perhaps it's that I've grown up and become cynical about the way our government is run. Or maybe I'm disgusted by the hypocrisy and lies that pervade politics. Either way, there's one thing I'm certain of: My friends and fellow young people are just not interested in this election. We're all fed up.

Read February article about Karenna Gore

The attempt to appeal to young voters by the two major candidates for president seems lukewarm at best. The campaigns have recruited family offspring -- Karenna Gore, 27, and George P. Bush, 24 -- to reach out to young voters (left). My question is: Who relates to these attractive young people? Don't politicians realize that young people don't necessarily attract young voters, especially when they don formal attire and make themselves available primarily for fund-raising events where the average attendee is in his or her 40s?

Both candidates already are perceived as coming from politically entrenched families that have little in common with you or me. Traipsing out their young kin, as bright as they are, just perpetuates the existing dynastic perception.

And let's not forget the issues. The truth is that no matter what the candidates say, the defining issue for many Americans hasn't been health care or education; it's been IPOs (that is, initial public offerings). For many, our strong economy has diverted attention from politics to lifestyle. Things have been running smoothly, unemployment is down and, overall, living standards seem to have improved.

Listen to Sasha Beterka, a 27-year-old Ph.D. student at the University of California, Berkeley: "My friends have been relatively satisfied over the past eight years. Things have been pretty good, and there hasn't been a pressing need for change. Besides, a lot of people are pretty cynical about politics right now."

My 50-something co-host of The View, comedian Joy Behar, argues that young people are uninterested because they're too comfortable: "My daughter, who's 29, doesn't talk much about politics. She was an infant during the Vietnam War, and she didn't go through it like we did. We're fortunate to be in the midst of this peaceful period, but my generation realizes everything is temporary. Young people don't understand that things can change on a dime."

It's not that we don't care. I've found that people of my generation are incredibly socially conscious and deeply passionate about a great many issues -- just not the ones the candidates are touting. Jakki Taylor, 28, a producer at The View, says the things the candidates discuss just don't apply to her life now. "I'm just not concerned about Social Security, prescription drugs and health care," she explains. "I know I should care, but I really want to see politicians address poverty and world peace."

Plus, Taylor adds, "I'm a very idealistic person, and I just don't believe politicians stick to their word. I feel like, when I vote, I'm voting for the person who offends me the least."

This year, the candidates have ignored members of my generation to focus on the "family": i.e., older voters. No wonder that, as a recent article in The Christian Science Monitor observed, not a single campaign flier could be found on the campus of New York University as Election Day neared. It's not that students are apathetic; they do, after all, rally against sweatshops, the death penalty and other social issues, the newspaper story noted. They're just apathetic about politicians.

Of course, I realize my generation didn't invent disillusionment. But over the past few years, the entire perception of politics has changed. My boss, Barbara Walters, believes the problem is that the respect once afforded politicians has evaporated. "When I was young, people trusted and were in awe of our political leaders," she told me. "Little boys wanted to be president. Today, there is a feeling that all politicians are either fake or programmed."

These days, presidents are known more for their shortcomings than for their attributes. Newscasts are awash with stories of scandal, and talk shows, including the one I work for, berate and belittle politicians for sport.

To the extent that the notions of sex and infidelity are accepted in our society, the astronomical amount of money and media attention devoted to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal last year was laughable. One year, The English Patient, a film in which the hero steals another man's wife, wins the Academy Award for Best Picture. A year later, millions of taxpayer dollars are spent by our government to investigate the president over a matter most Americans consider private.

It's so not cool to admit I am affected by advertising and TV directed at my demographic -- Gen Xers, if you will -- but I loved the "Rock the Vote" spots in 1992 that featured Madonna wrapped in the American flag, and so many other artists I worshiped. They urged me to get out and exercise my right. And those now-played-out images of candidate Clinton jammin' on The Arsenio Hall Show are firmly engrained in my mind. Although my peers will shudder at the declaration, when the young woman asked Clinton on MTV whether he preferred boxers or briefs, I stopped what I was doing to hear the answer (I knew he was a briefs kinda guy).

The point is, there was an obvious effort on the part of the media and the candidate to get people who otherwise might not vote, to do so.

I was 18 then, a year out of high school and hanging out with friends who had no idea what they were going to do with their lives (the Internet, and the jobs it would bring, was a vague concept at the time). We'd had 12 years of the Reagan and Bush administrations and were going through a recession. At the time, Bill Clinton was like a symbol of hope for the future. To me, he was young, he was self-made, he was smart, he was cool.

Dave Sirulnick, senior vice president of MTV news and production, believes the big difference between then and now is the candidates themselves. "He had a freshness," Sirulnick says of Clinton. "Gore isn't that fresh. Bush is, but he's the son of a president."

Clinton embraced the media in a way few of his predecessors could. But so many of those who ardently supported him during the elections of 1992 and '96 have become disillusioned by his many shortcomings, exacerbated and exaggerated by the very medium that embraced him. The small-town boy we cheered and championed let us down.

Clinton's lies seemed to be just the most blatant example of the untruths so commonly uttered by our elected officials. "You can't trust anything they say," says Dana Goodman, a 25-year-old TV producer. "They look you in the face and lie. How do you know they're not lying about the issues?"

The excessive media castration, and the degree to which the office has been tarnished, makes me wonder: What kind of person would want to be president today? Perhaps only one for whom politics and family are intertwined, someone who's expected to take part because it's his or her birthright.

Especially after writing this piece for USA WEEKEND, I feel compelled to get out there Nov. 7 and exercise my right to vote. I'm sick of politics as usual, but I don't want to abandon the system entirely. Although I'm not a full-fledged supporter of Ralph Nader, I agree with a number of issues he endorses: overhauling campaign finance, universal health care, and women's right to choose abortion. I'm somewhat inclined to vote for him knowing he has no chance because I like the idea of another political party, a challenge to the system.

But many under 35 simply won't vote. Instead, they'll take things into their own hands, volunteering, protesting and raising money for non-profit organizations.

It's not that we don't care. On the contrary. We're just disgusted with "politics as usual." But then again, isn't everyone?

"We don't vote"

USA WEEKEND readers heard last spring from Karenna Gore (right) about her efforts to enlist younger voters to vote for her father, Democratic presidential hopeful Al Gore. Here, Lisa Ling talks to Karenna's Republican counterpart, George P. Bush, about his uncle, George W. Bush, and the youth vote in this year's race:

When he's not at law school or the MTV music video awards, 24-year-old George P. Bush is out stumping for young voters, talking to them "in their terms," as he puts it. "When I just talk to them about what is on their minds -- school violence in light of Columbine, abortion, you know, issues that really face these kids -- they begin to see the light as it relates to getting involved."

But when I asked the young Bush, son of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, why the candidates aren't addressing these issues more prominently, he was refreshingly frank: "Because," he said, "we don't vote. Honestly, if you're a campaign manager, if you put yourself in those shoes, I would cater a message toward what older people feel." In other words, even P. thinks we've been discounted.

He praised, of all people, Bill Clinton, who defeated P's grandfather in 1992, for courting young voters.

"He went to the forums himself. He saw an untapped potential there," George P. said. "In time, both campaigns will see that potential and market themselves toward younger Americans."

As descendants of two of America's deeply political families, the young Bush and Karenna Gore don't exactly have the same backgrounds as most of the

20-somethings they are trying to attract. I asked P. how they can they connect.

He made a point of conveying how "normal" his upbringing was. "My grandmother always told my parents there is nothing worse than a spoiled grandkid, and as soon as I turned 12, while kids were going to summer camp, I worked as a janitor every summer. It taught me the value of a dollar. It taught me the experiences of working-class people."

He added, "Yes, I do come from a fortunate and privileged background, but that doesn't mean I don't understand or I can't empathize or I can't relate."

Photo Credit: ROB KINMONTH for USA WEEKEND (Ling) and TIMOTHY GRENFIELD SANDERS for USA WEEKEND (Gore cover)