Goodbye voter apathy, hello Howard Dean

Anyone here remember Howard Dean? If you do, I'll be bold enough to assume that it's not because you find his opinion of U.S. foreign policy particularly moving or because you are impressed by his stance on eminent domain.

Political vlogging will be more helpful than hurtful for politicians, unless you're Howard Dean.
Photo: YouTube capture

Most likely, you'll remember Howard Dean as the guy who screamed "Beeyah!" at the end of his speech at the Iowa Democratic caucuses. It was a scream heard around the world grace à YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook

All ranting aside (pun intended), it is unfortunate that his hyper hoopla played a negative role in his campaign but I'm going to turn lemons into lemonade and say that it's a great example of what political vlogging can do for candidates. I mean, at least you've heard of him.

Maybe you are a lone poindexter who is willing to sacrifice a Thursday night to sit in on a conference about the coal-fired power plant popping up in your state (personally guilty), or to wake up early Sunday morning to listen to the political commentary of George Will. If you are, you're a rarity because politically active twenty-somethings are few and far between.

Political vlogs may be the panacea for the epidemic of young adult voter apathy. While many aren't interested in picking up a newspaper to reflect on the different aspects of every candidate, watching it online is convenient enough and, more importantly, cool enough that it will change the way my generation approaches politics.

If you've stayed silent about your political fascination for fear of the politically disinterested, fret no more. Your days of political hermithood are over. Trust me on this. Political blogging is the newest thing in geek chic.

As a vessel for personal opinion or as a forum for peer-generated debate, online political blogs are revolutionary in their affect on my generation of voters. Political blogging is as savvy as it gets. Beeyah!