Worries abound that corruption is draining Millennials’ idealism
In a country obsessed with the Machiavellian exploits of “House of Cards” and its villainous lead character, Frank Underwood, it’s no wonder that Millennials like Juleah Cordi — hopeful, passionate about causes and totally hooked on politics — are in danger of becoming a vanishing species.
Cordi became an activist as a preteen, interned for a congressman at 21 and now, at 25, is happily immersed in agricultural and policy issues in her home of Sutter County. She acknowledges she’s not the usual twentysomething.
“I think ‘House of Cards’ is a well-done show,” Cordi said. But, based on what she’s seen in politics, she said, “I don’t think it’s real.”
In California, a state where real-life political corruption scandals are in the headlines, it’s also no wonder that idealistic, engaged teens like Isabelle Gardner, a junior at Marin Catholic High School and co-leader of the Marin County Youth Commission, may soon
be the rare exception.
“I can’t vote yet, but it’s important to remember how important your voice is,” Gardner said. She’s volunteered for causes since she was 12 and says she still believes politics can do the impossible: “affect people’s lives” in good ways.
A half-century after President John F. Kennedy’s call to arms — “Ask not what your country can do for you” — political scientists and politicians alike express concern that young Americans’ inclination toward activism is being dampened by cultural messages that public service is for backstabbers and suckers.
Feeling disconnected
“With cynicism at all-time high — and the approval rating for Congress and the Legislature so low — we’re seeing that people don’t feel connected,” said Alison Howard, a political science professor at Dominican University in San Rafael. “Especially young people, who don’t know anything except what they see on television, which is negative. Because the hard-working (public servants) who go to work every day just don’t get covered.”
Polling by the Harvard University Institute of Politics released in December showed that just 22 percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 considered themselves “politically engaged,” a precipitous drop from 35 percent in 2006.
To Patrick Dorinson, who has worked for Republican governors and now hosts a political radio talk show in Sacramento, the problem is that public service “has become a business, like everything else.”
“We’ve created Hollywood publicists in politics — and we don’t recognize these guys,” Dorinson said. “So to a lot of young people, it’s just another show. There’s a blurred line between reality and TV.”
Mary Marcy, president of Dominican University, says schools and colleges can take a role in bumping up those numbers with efforts that counter “a cynicism that is tangible and disheartening.”
The answer at Dominican was to open the doors to Congress to Campus, a program sponsored by the Stennis Center for Public Service, which brings former House members on campus to teach classes, run seminars and engage in discussions on the challenges and payoffs of local public service.
“We’ve been conditioned too long to look at politics at the national level,” said Marcy, a political scientist. “Students are finding they can do more in their own backyard. They have a strong sense of community — they start out local, and they see they can make a difference.
“And once they get a taste of having an impact,” she said, “it’s impossible to stop them.”
Cordi and Gardner were among dozens of people 25 and younger who attended Dominican’s recent program, which brought former Rep. Frank Riggs, a Republican who represented the North Coast in Congress for three terms, and former Rep. Brian Baird, a Washington state Democrat, into classrooms for discussions.
Not giving up
Baird said that in an age when the young get much of their news from TV comedians like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, politics is going to get a bad reputation.
“There’s plenty of reason, when you watch what passes for debate on TV, to feel negative about the institution,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean you give up on it.”
The only way things will change, Baird said, “is if good young people step forward.”
Cordi said she became politically engaged because of a very personal issue: She was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at age 11. “I saw a flyer about Walk to Cure, and my mom and I thought it would be something positive,” she said.
She began fundraising, and soon she and other young activists were lobbying elected officials to fund research.
By 15, Cordi had enrolled in the Children’s Congress program, which took her to the nation’s capital. “I fell in love with Washington,” Cordi said. “I was sold.”
She became a congressional page at 16, and five years later she returned to Capitol Hill to intern for Rep. Sam Farr, DCarmel.
Having grown up on a family farm on the north side of the Sutter Buttes, where grapes, olives and almonds are among the crops, she gravitated toward agricultural policy. Now she’s the district manager for the Sutter County Resource Conservation District, where she works with natural resources officials and helps farmers navigate state water regulations.
For more than wonks
Cordi, a Dominican alumna, retuned to her alma mater to join Riggs and Baird to talk up public service from all angles — from volunteering at nonprofits to walking door-todoor on a campaign.
“You don’t have to be a policy wonk to love politics like I do,” Cordi said. Public service “comes in all shapes and all forms.” Gardner agrees. The 17-year-old started on her public service road in the seventh grade, tutoring elementary school students. Today she works with a program called Enriching Lives Through Music, teaching violin and music theory to children in the largely Latino Canal district of San Rafael.
Last year, Gardner was appointed head of the education equity committee for the county Youth Commission. She and other teenagers on the panel advocated for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students who were being bullied.
Anti-bullying policies
Their efforts resulted in beefed-up anti-bullying policies in San Rafael and Novato schools. The payoff, she said, came when LGBT students personally thanked her for efforts that helped them “feel less anxious” about their security while at school.
The new sales pitch for young people, said Cordi — countering a culture that sells “the corrupt and the scandalous … 24/7” — is that there’s real value in being “a public servant who gives up other pursuits for a period of time to serve the greater good.”
“We are fortunate to live in an incredible society with a dynamic system at all levels,’’ Cordi said. “I was blessed with being exposed to it and learning to appreciate it. It doesn’t work well all the time — but it’s still extraordinary.”