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| Jason Cecil and Tim Cairl, both gay men, will lead the Young Democrats of Georgia for the foreseeable future. (Photo by Zack Hudson) |
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HOME > COMMUNITY > COMMUNITY FEATURE
By: ZACK HUDSON
COMMENTS |
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DON’T MIND THE NOISY RUMBLING THAT’S COMING from somewhere in the distance. It’s only the sound of a state political system being turned on its ear. It’s also nothing to be afraid of — at least according to Jason Cecil and Tim Cairl, both gay and respectively the newly installed president and executive director of Young Democrats of Georgia. The revolution, they say, will definitely be televised — on MySpace.
“The issues that young people care about today are issues that fit well with the Democratic Party,” says Cecil, 32.
The Young Democrats will use those issues — paying for college, concerns about the environment, the Iraq war, among others — along with a new $250,000 grant, in their efforts to recruit 30,000 new voters by 2010.
Cecil, whose term as president runs through 2009, realizes that the task ahead of the organization is tall, and one MTV, Howard Dean and others have seen implode. He and his counterparts do have youth — and the energy that comes with it — on their side. “There isn’t a surefire way to attract people who are turned off by the political system,” he acknowledges.
“We’re going to try whatever we can think of and whatever works, we’ll keep doing,” he says.
THE DOING HAS ALREADY BEGUN. THE ORGANIZATION SECURED A three- year, $250,000 grant from philanthropist Peter Lewis for “transformative” purposes. In May, Cairl, 31, a longtime chapter leader and state officer, became the Young Democrats first-ever paid staff member.
“We are going through a major transformation, and totally revamping our outreach strategy,” he promises. He’s busy reviving current Young Democrats chapters, and looking out for spots where new ones can start up.
“We look at the layout of where young people are and figure out ways to go and outreach to them and get them voting — for the Democratic Party, of course,” he explains.
That means, of course, competing for attention from the under-40 set during the years when they’re busy getting married — or having commitment ceremonies — hanging out in bars, buying homes, starting families, wasting time on the internet and getting pulled into “Grey’s Anatomy.”
“Young people tend to be very passionate about specific issues, which plays heavily into our overall outreach plan,” Cairl says.
Right — those issues again. But what can the young people, formerly the powerless interns and absentees within the Democratic Party, do about any of it? First, come hell or high water, Cairl and Cecil say they’ll stop at nothing to make the Young Dems a force within the state Democratic Party.
“You look at where the energy for a lot of the pushes is coming from, and it is the young people in the organizations, and it is the young people. They are the new driving force for Democratic strength in the state,” Cairl predicts.
All they have to do is capture as much of that energy as they can, and bottle it for use at election time.
“It can be something as simple as signing a petition, hosting an educational forum, issuing action alerts — just making it relevant for young people on issues that are relevant to them,” Cairl says.
Both Cairl and Cecil are openly gay and have managed to secure leadership posts within the legitimate Georgia political system, which hasn’t exactly been kind to gay voters.
“The party might not be great on our issues, but they accept us, which is certainly not the case from the other side,” Cecil says.
THE YOUNG DEMOCRATS OF AMERICA RECENTLY ELECTED AN OPENLY gay president and vice president for the first time in the organization’s history, David Hardt from Texas and Chris Anderson from Tennessee. In Georgia, there’s been little or no interference from agitators about Cairl and Cecil being gay, they say.
“It would have been one of my original concerns as well. But it really isn’t a factor among our generation as a whole,” Cairl says.
“For people under the age of 40, it’s not a big deal to know a gay person,” Cecil adds.
For perspective, he offers a story about the organization’s officer elections last April in Jekyll Island.
“There was one person who questioned it. People looked at her like she had three heads,” he recalls.
Anyway, Cecil says there’s room for differences — not to be confused with infighting — within the large state party.
“Georgia Democrats especially are very diverse about social issues. What plays in Atlanta won’t play in rural Georgia, obviously,” he says. “But there’s enough issues that we agree on that getting derailed on certain social issues isn’t really an option anymore.”
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