Given what you heard in assigned clip from Uncounted — (You did listen to Uncounted,Links to an external site. right? If not, go back and listen!) — and given what you know about social construction, mental gaps/lumping/splitting (remember Zerubavel?) — what do you think about the idea of 16 year olds being eligible to vote? What social forces or aspects of your social location may contribute to your thinking about this topic?
Uncounted – https://radiolab.org/episodes/uncounted
– Listen to 30:30 through 51:00 for should 16 year olds be able to vote
Like many trying to encourage voting, CJ Cregg (the fictional White House Press Secretary on the series West Wing) is trying to help people — in this case “youth” — understand what government has to do with them and hence, why they should “rock the vote.” Listen carefully. Think sociologically, think about culture and social structure. How is her appeal similar to or different from John Lewis’?Links to an external site. (Or YelloPain’sLinks to an external site.?) (What did you think of Lewis’ posthumously published piece? )
John Lewis – https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html (Pdf attached)
YellowPain – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMALeR1i-FM
CJ Cregg – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEqKeYylWjU
Given what you learned from this material, if you ruled the world, and your goal was to make democracy in the United States the most healthy, robust, vibrant democracy ever, would you focus on culture, social structure, or both? What would you change about how we do democracy in the United States? How would you go about changing it? (This question is specifically about democracy, voting and elections… NOT society in general.)
https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/where-youth-vote-can-be-decisive-2022-elections
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-february-2022
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/state-native-american-voting-rights
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