The Irony of the "Obama Youth Effect"

We all know our good friend the reasonable person. According to recent studies, the youth of America today is different from the last era. Last fall, William Strauss, a generational expert, reported to MTV that the current generation of teens is more civic-minded. This year, MTV decided to raise its number of viewers by conforming to the new thinking and sending MTV talents across the country to accomplish "100 things to do before you die"-type acts and, along the way, granting the wishes of underprivileged youth (though as this idea is in hopes to raise their number of viewers it is not quite as gallant an action).

If youth are becoming more civic-minded and more reasonable relating to political issues, it can be inferred that their reasonability for their own actions regarding the laws has increased as well. After all, if they have been paying more attention to the news and take a greater interest in politics, they should have a better understanding of right and wrong in respect to America's laws and capable of understanding ways to improve society. 

Cases such as Morse v Frederick and Fraser, students were ruled against because of their inappropriate speech and/or behavior, Frederick displaying a sign that could reasonably be read as sanctioning marijuana usage and Fraser using "offensively lewd and indecent speech." Stated for Frederick, "children assuredly do not shed their constitutional rights...at the schoolhouse gate...[as] the nature of those rights is what is appropriate for children in school." If minors of this generation are more interested in watching shows documenting charity work and community improvement than how rich teenagers entertain themselves, it's clearly a step in the right direction for teens to exhibit less inappropriate behavior and more behavior that is beneficial to other students based on merit of ideas or actions. In essence, acting in a more reasonable manner.

However, what is seen as reasonability of minors by MTV's sources may be seen as the beginning of socialism by others. Such a label would of course strip away any progress made by minors to resemble our reasonable friend.

The recent election has caused numerous people to give credit to Obama for the rising youth involvement in politics and has even been given the name "The Obama Youth Effect."

The MTV article gives credit to the recent election for the growing political education of teens. Ironically, some see Obama as against First Amendment rights. Back in October of 2008, Andrew McCarthy of the National Review sent out a warning that then Senator Obama "and his supporters despise free expression, the bedrock of American self-determinism and hence American democracy. What's more, like garden-variety despots, they see law not as a means of ensuring liberty but as a tool to intimidate and quall dissent." Agreeing opinions would be that of the "Conservative Christian," and the creator of this YouTube video, extremist views that Obama's election has led to the demise of true free speech and has actually resulted in a sort of brainwashed, regulated speech. The blogger believes that Obama's goal in affecting youth is to turn them away from God and to act as today's Hitler. Such an issue would of course give cause to discourage youth from allowing Obama's influence to affect their reasoning of political decision making. If minors are assumed to be influenced by Obama, their level of reasoning if below that of the reasonable person as they now not only do not have the knowledge to make beneficial decisions for their classmates or society, but are incapable of making their own decisions period.

Contrary to such reports of Obama's acts of domestic mental terrorism is that of the First Amendment Lawyer Blog. New Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) guidelines were decided by Attorney General Eric Holder on March 19th, following the President's presidential memorandum issued on his first day of office. He called for agencies to "usher in a new era of open government." The new guidelines are to direct executive branch departments to presume openness when administering the FOIA. Transparency is to allow for the public to view government activities and support their right to see them. Such a policy encourages the public to become more active in the politic aspect of America and such action could trickle down to American's youth, furthering their reasonableness regarding political decisions. Looking at decisions such as these support the "work in progress" for youth to become politically involved during Obama's presidency, hoping it will continue on after. 

As more youth can be considered knowledgeable about political concepts, perhaps the Supreme Court will believe that they have more of a right to reasonably express themselves politically as well as in other ways. However, the "Obama Effect" can be seen in a very negative light. The eery way in which youth publicly praise Obama makes me believe they are less reasonable and more programmed. Then again, programmed people would of course be less likely to cause disruption due to their freedom of expression as it would be the same expression as the rest of the children and therefore at least not cause disruption in the classroom. Additionally, the First Amendment is in existence to protect the speech others disapprove of. While its been discussed time and time again that speech in schools has much more reason to be regulated than speech outside of the classroom, the First Amendment should protect minors from being silenced if the majority of the school or of a class is expressing one opinion that people not within that class or school disapprove of. After all, if it is the majority belief, it is not causing as much of a disruption as the belief that may exist in majority outside of the school's walls (such as the YouTube video of students chanting for Obama in military uniforms that got their teacher suspended). This is of course assuming that the students were not forced to show support for Obama. The students were not silenced, but as the teacher was supposed to teach McCain's economic plan as well and appeared to have not, he was suspended. Teachers could possibly construe this as a sort of prior restraint. They may restrain their students from jointly expressing one belief in case others feel they are erring in not having diverse beliefs.

In support of student expression, the 5th Circuit of Texas decided on March 16th of this year that the moment of silence in Texas schools is constitutional. As this moment of silence is applicable in various ways, the moment is an expression of freedom for minors to openly practice their religion if they wish. While this item has been an issue in many states for the last couple of years, the decision to protect this could reflect the changing times for respect of minor rights.  While there have been numerous First Amendment case victories since the crucial months leading up to Obama's election, this has been the only case to specifically involve minors. So perhaps court rulings will loosen the ties of minor First Amendment cases. Only time will tell.