To all the American Idol detractors, have you ever considered

[BR_Parkway]

are few things beyond it's mindless, distraction value that you're so quick to dump into various threads?

The first one is that anytime you paint with a broad brush, you cover people who don't deserve it and probably don't appreciate being called stupid - which closes them down to anything else you have to say - party of Big Tent indeed, just as long as we're all in lockstep agreement.

But here's the really important point that you missed. The majority voter on the show are 13-16 year olds - not old enough to drag to the polls this year - but they are being trained that their votes can count for something vs their parent's cynical view that one vote won't make a difference. Thank about the future of that - where people think their vote will actually count. And if they are already getting 'invested' in a particular entertainer - and that entertainer talks out in a few years like Clooney or Dixie Chicks - what a tremendous influence that could have.

Maybe you didn't see this report just released about the folks your deriding for being so apethetic:

http://www.campaignline.com/webedition/page.cfm?navid=51&pageid=875

Poll: 73 Percent of Young People Will Vote in 2006
Theodora A. Blanchfield , May 22, 2006

If the 2004 and 2005 elections are any indicator, young voters will continue to turn out at the polls in record numbers in upcoming elections.

Turnout in 2004 among the 18-to-24 year old bloc increased 11 percent over 2000 turnout, while general turnout increased only by four percent. In key governor races in Virginia and New Jersey in 2005, youth turnout continued to grow while general turnout dropped. A new poll released by Young Voter Strategies, a project of the George Washington Graduate School of Political Management, shows that 73 percent of young people who are eligible to vote are likely to cast ballots this November.

“If you ask them, they will vote,” said Heather Smith, director for Young Voter Strategies. “It’s figuring out how to ask them.”

They are paying attention, they are pissed at what is happening. And calling them stupid vs building them up as they get involved is completely counterproductive to me.

(inspired by previous thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2646695&mesg_id=2648317