Politics & Communication with Joshua Gee

The Boston Globe (really the Washington Post, sigh) has a piece on the rise in political activism among India’s middle-class youth. This political awakening stems from a combination of President Obama’s election, the November terrorist attacks in Mumbai and frustration with the systemic corruption of Indian elected officials. The article glosses over one aspect that I found interesting, the rise in India’s middle class, in order to focus on how the young activists are using technology to spread their message:

But now the same high-tech tools and toys of youth culture that help teenagers engage with one another are being used to expose the misdeeds of political leaders. In the past, police harassed young people when they massed for street demonstrations, but Indian youths now gather on Facebook or organize over text messaging, a powerful medium in India, where 385 million people own cellphones, according to the Cellular Operators Association of India…

Some youth organizers, for example, have started text messaging the jail records of lawmakers in a country where nearly one-fourth of the 540 members of Parliament face criminal charges, including rape and murder, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms.

Most of the activism seems to be focused on general voter turnout rather than any particular party. However, the article does mention several new youth-oriented political parties that have started with platforms that include “fighting terrorism, stemming job losses, and improving the nation’s crumbling public schools and roads.”

Is this is a lot of sound and fury? Will this be the Indian equivalent of Howard Dean? I don’t think so. I don’t really know how India’s elections work, but if some of these small youth parties get enough votes they could form a youth/good government coalition to get their issues heard in the Parliament. Political awakenings don’t happen right away, small gains or setbacks in one election serve to embolden and train the political organizers who work for big gains in the next election.

I wish the article did a bit of a deeper dive into the information about text messaging. According to a study by Credo Mobile and Student PIRGs, President Obama’s campaign’s use of text messaging increased youth turnout by about 5% (a huge amount). India, along with most other countries, has a much higher text message penetration rate than America. On the one hand, this could mean greater turnout since people are more comfortable with text messages and more likely to sign up for political text message alerts. On the other hand,  other countries have a much higher rate of text message advertising, so Indian voters could be jaded and less likely to pay as much attention to political appeals. Either way, it will be interesting to see if these youth parties are able to increase turnout significantly. I will be more interested to see if this sporadic activism can be channeled by a particular party or person into the runup to the next round of elections.

I have been a little disappointed in The Fix recently. It was, along with FiveThirtyEight, one of my favorite blogs during the Presidential election. Chris Cilizza has excellent political instincts and a good sense of humor that enabled him to give insights into the ups and downs of campaigns all over the country and into the daily life of a major newspaper reporter.

However, since the election, Cilizza hasn’t been interesting me as much. Maybe it is because Obama already won, so I don’t really care whether his plan to save the economy is popular with Republicans or not; I would rather read some policy blogs about whether it will work. But that can’t be it, since I love to hear about the machinations of Congress and the White House. It seems that Cilizza just doesn’t seem to give the insight into the sausage-making of policy that he was able to give to the campaigns. I have also worried that Cilizza was losing his touch. He did just cover the campaign of a lifetime and has a new baby, so it is understandable if they guy wants to phone it in for a while.

However, as soon as you give up on someone they smack you in the face. I was delighted to see a great post yesterday, right in Cilizza’s wheelhouse, about the NY-20 special election. I was just saying that I have no idea what is going on with this election and probably should. So Chris, what are the basics?

The special election in New York’s 20th district is just one week away and the level of national interest — and involvement — is growing rapidly.

What’s clear is that businessman Scott Murphy, the Democrat, has the momentum over state Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R), and a loss for Republicans could be potentially disastrous for a party looking for good news.

The Albany-area district went for Obama narrowly in November, according to tabulations by Swing State Project.

Thanks! What are five things I need to know to be aware of the issues at stake in this election? And do you mind if I summarize what you wrote?

• Will Obama get Involved? (He endorsed Murphy this morning)
• Which third-party groups (e.g., Unions) will be able to position themselves to claim victory for whoever wins?
• The campaign is coming down to a debate over the stimulus,  as such it could be seen as a national referendum on President Obama’s plans.
• Apparently the ads are almost 100% negative. Will either candidate tack against the wind and go positive or will someone devise a new negative ad that floors his opponent.
• GOTV – with a week left that is really all that matters. Have campaigns done their homework? Do they know where the votes are? Also will Obama’s endorsement affect that effort.

Great! I will be keeping an eye on this race and The Fix has earned itself a few more months in my RSS reader.