Like anyone from any party who has stood for election, I've often had the depressing experience of meeting an 18- or 19-year-old new voter on the doorstep and being told: 'I'm not interested in voting' or 'none of this matters to me.'
Electoral turnout is falling among the young, and political apathy is on the rise.
Somewhere between the ages of eleven and fifteen, the average child begins to suffer from an atrophy, the paralysis of curiosity and the suspension of the power to observe. The trouble, I should judge, to lie with the schools.
I think that the Democratic Party has been ill served by identity politics. I think that ironically evangelicals have now bought into the same mistake. They have discovered allies in the white supremacist movement. I think this is a heavy price to pay and will in the end accelerate the departure from religion by young people.
Apathy in youth culture is pretty stark.
Many young Muslims see no opportunities for themselves and do not feel they have control over their lives or a stake in their nation's future. Such pessimism leads to disengagement. We risk losing a generation of young Muslims to apathy and extremism.
The dropout crisis is just the tip of an iceberg. What it doesn't count are all the kids who are in school but being disengaged from it, who don't enjoy it, who don't get any real benefit from it.
People turn off the news, stop reading in-depth magazine articles - especially young people. Look at the increasing reluctance of young people to vote. I think a lot of that is directly - you can lay it at the feet of these negative campaigns and relentless attack ads.
African American boys oftentimes fall behind in school early, start feeling discouraged, check out, drop out, end up on the streets and then get into trouble.
Certainly the institutional church is ill. It's hemorrhaging young people at an astronomical rate.
I skipped school starting in tenth grade. I started doing badly and failed every class but English, so they kicked me out of school. They gave up on me.
Young people drift away from society because, in many cases, they have no hope or goals. So, hope will have to be given to the young.
