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Funking the Monster The League of Pissed Off Voters parties for a cause By Ivy McNally› barsandclubs@sfbg.com Face it: Politics is baffling. Not to mention humiliating, depressing, and totally fucking disappointing. Don't believe it? Okay, then answer this. When have you cried more: when your dog died, at the end of your most recent relationship, or while watching Bill O'Reilly's smirking mug after the 2004 election? Yeah, we know it hurts, but don't give up on politics just yet. At least one local activist organization is helping young, pissed off voters keep the movement moving by relying on something young people have had going for them all along: their big, fat mouths and a high tolerance for booze and loud music. The League of Young Voters (www.indyvoter.org) is a New York City–based group with affiliates in 17 cities nationwide. Its mission is to channel the churning political frustrations of impassioned 17-to-35-year-olds into a progressive governing majority. Dedicated to raising funds and awareness, San Francisco organizer Natasha Marsh, 24, tells us the aim of the league is to reinvigorate the hopes of young people and other underrepresented groups who have had bad past experiences with politics. (Bad past experiences could include, for instance, standing in line in the rain for three hours to vote for the very first time, only to have your candidate lose out to a tag team that oddly resembles a chimpanzee and the Penguin. We've all been there.) The group uses several means to that end, including outreach programs for high school and college students, action events, and youth-oriented voters' guides. But the most fun means of political outreach by far would have to be the parties. Also known as the League of Pissed Off Voters to anyone who's seen their party fliers plastered all over the city, this is an organization that truly knows what gets young people eager to join the political scene: cocktails and booty shaking. Past parties have featured local bands like the Kinsella Brothers and Low Red Land and DJs Tim D. and Sake 1. A typical league gig draws between 450 and 600 young people who are eager to exchange ideas, support local initiatives, and party their asses off. According to Marsh, parties are an especially effective means of raising funds and awareness because "people won't do things if they're just serious and not fun, but they won't get involved in politics if it's all fun and feels like fluff." Finding a balance between the fluff and the facts in its quest to equalize the political playing field is vital to this organization, whose local affiliates often rely on money raised at club and house parties. The events are also essential to getting young bodies in the front door of the political arena. Such was the case recently when organizers needed to get 100 young people to attend an ethics commission hearing on campaign spending. You're yawning already, aren't you? Heather Box, 24, the league's event planner, couldn't agree more. "Things like that are really technical — not exactly a fun place where people hang out," she says. The league's solution was to host an after-party at a bar across the street from City Hall. And guess what? "Someone from the ethics commission told me they never had that many people come in to a meeting like that," Box says. "They didn't even know it was an issue people cared about, much less young people." Frustrated by the prevalent attitude that young people simply don't care about politics, Box says, "I don't find that young people are apathetic at all, but that stereotype is all around us. So many people don't invest in young people. They don't ask them to do what they're good at. "Young people may not have a lot of money to lobby with or a lot of time, but we have numbers. That's something young people are good at. They're good at getting in rooms with 500 other people and doing something." * PICTURE PROGRESS: LEAGUE OF PISSED OFF VOTERS' ART AUCTION AND PARTY March 31, 6:30 p.m. Red Ink Studios 989 Market, SF (415) 861-3402 www.redinkstudios.com |
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