Knock the Vote 2018

In November 2018, a midterm election in the United States took place.  The midterm elections are a way for US citizens to keep the President in check. It allows voters to change the makeup of Congress, though voting in more Democrats to prevent Republican law from being passed.  In this way, voters can prevent Trump from making any progress if enough people disagree with his end goals. 


Based on the ‘Knock the Vote’ video, the majority of mid-term electorates are usually whiter, older and more conservative than voters from a presidential election.  The video featured a variety of older men and women using profanity to anger youth.  They made comments disregarding climate change, school shootings and the ‘March for Lives’ movement.  Their defence for not caring about upcoming issues was that they will be dead, or that they haven’t been to school for 50 years.  The message of the video is reminding youth that rich, elderly Donald Trump supporters will be out in numbers. Therefore, in order to make a difference in an election, young people need to vote for their voices to be heard.  

This ad irritated me. Not only did people in the video think issues aren’t their problem, but they also accused American youth of not caring about the cause.  Young Americans were responsible for creating one of the biggest youth protests since the Vietnam War—March for Lives; a rally for tighter gun control.   The movement inspired millions of people across the world— proving that young generations can make a difference in the world, The ad clearly used reverse psychology, as a tactic to convince younger generations that issues in their communities can be solved.  It was an interesting choice that ultimately resulted in thousands of youth checking their voter's registration.  

Overall, I think this ad was intended to scare millennials into voting.  The point was to remind youth that older generations are essentially deciding who is elected to office.  According to the US Census Bureau, 70.9% of American citizens 65 years and older voted in the last election, while only 46.1% of people age 18-29 did.  The ad achieved its goal of getting more millennials to vote at upcoming elections. However, youth still need to continue to go out and vote, in order to create real, long-term change.