Running For Office: An Analysis

Historically, holding a public office was something to be proud about. In recent years, there is more apathy and distaste from young people to get involved and run for political office. It does not matter at what level that office may be. It could be at the local, state or national level. As this has been the case for many years, it has in recent years become more evident. Lawless and Fox, in Running from Office, looked at this problem and made recommendations in an effort to resolve and bring light to this issue. The lack of involvement and interest in running for office by women is especially disappointing for me. As I personally have an interest in politics, I do not have a desire to run for political office. In Running for Office, …show more content…
Lawless and Fox presents many reasons why this is the case. First, young people are turned off with all the negative aspects of politics. They see and hear the most negative aspects of running for political office. They view the American political system as dysfunctional and partisan and feel elected officials are more concerned with their political agenda than their constituents. Young people distrust politics, especially at the federal level. When we think of our recent political scandals, we think of the 2013 government shutdown for lack of cooperation between the two political parties or remember hearing about President Clinton and his lying about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Our nation is a democracy, but we tend to act like children in our cheap political quarrels. Second, our families do not encourage careers in politics. Rarely do we discuss politics with our parents. If our parents do discuss politics, it tends to be in a very general nature and never to encourage their children to run for political office. Some children may go with their parents to vote, but most conversations are around the negative ads or the exposure of some corrupt politician. Young people, although very connected to social media and teenage type social events, they are rather disconnected to political news and never …show more content…
First, they suggest that the government become more involved by establishing a program similar to the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps. President John F. Kennedy established these organizations by signing an executive order to respond to society’s needs. In this instance, the sitting president could do the same and establish a similar program to promote how important running for political office. As suggested by Lawless and Fox, an organization like this would hold politics out as a noble career. It would show young adults that running for office should be appealing to them because it can have such positive effects on their community and country. They have called this initiative YouLead. This initiative would motivate young people to get involved in every level of possible politics. In other words, if they don’t agree with a policy at their high school, they should run for office and change it. As I considered this recommendation, I felt it would be a very worthwhile effort. I believe if young people could get involved at a younger age, they will see the positives of running for office and how they can personally change their environment for the benefit of their community, whether it is high school or college. I believe they will have more conversations and interactions with their parents or other people in their life who influence them. They would be able to