By all accounts, the youth-and-civics group Rock the Vote is on hard times. Although it’s been around for 16 years trying to empower the MTV generation, it’s been rocked of late by lackluster fund-raising, debt, staff defections and law suits.
What it likely means is this. Absent inspiration provided by the marketing power of the music industry, 18- to 25-year-old voters will have to be motivated by what has to motivate everybody else. Issues and giving a damn.
Hopefully, that’s not asking too much.