IOWA VIEW
Madeline Meyer hopes to inspire other young people to caucus
'Our Caucus' participant Madeline Meyer's interest in politics runs deep, and she hopes other young people will get involved in shaping the next presidency.
Madeline Meyer
Flashback to four years ago, when I had a flip camera in hand and a microphone in the other. On that cold November day, I made it my job to interview students on Drake's campus, asking them their opinions on who was going to win the 2012 general election.
I wanted to explore politics, and I wanted to see what people my age were saying. To some degree, I was frustrated. So many young people didn't think they were informed enough to vote. These were young adults who were admitted to a private university; students who were educated and pursuing bachelor degrees. If they didn't think they were informed enough to vote, how could the rest of America be? This puzzled me, and I became fascinated with politics. That spring, I added my politics major.
Government affects everyone, from healthcare to pension plans, social security, education and the economy. Elected officials are the individuals we trust to provide a framework so that our society keeps moving and improving. I care about politics because politicians and governmental bureaucracy have a hand in shaping my future. I want to be a part of the process. In addition to young people feeling uninformed, they also feel disenchanted. Young people don't trust the establishment, whether that be traditional media outlets or the political elite. We are frustrated with partisan politics.
Unlike most young people, I have worked on both sides of the aisle as an intern for a Democratic administration in the White House and for Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. I was pleasantly surprised with both experiences. The internships relieved me of the cynicism I had toward Washington, as I saw how the people that I worked with genuinely cared about the future of the United States. The difference was just that they came from completely different ideologies.
I want to provide an honest and relatively bipartisan outlook on the Iowa caucuses. Being a young person, I hope to inspire other young people in Iowa to care more about the role we play in shaping the next presidency.
Madeline Meyer is a senior politics major with a concentration in broadcast news at Drake University. She worked for Sen. Chuck Grassley in Washington, D.C., as a press intern and continued to cover politics throughout her junior year as an intern at Iowa Public Television. Last summer, Meyer worked at the White House in the Office of The First Lady as a press intern and returned to Iowa with an eagerness to participate in the Iowa caucuses. She interned for CBS during the Democratic national debate at Drake and is currently writing her honors thesis about the relationship between the political elite and the media. She has seen nearly every presidential candidate and is an independent voice seeking to find a candidate that supports a bipartisan agenda. Her main interests are education, the economy, social liberties and foreign policy.