Catherine Rampell, an editorial page staffer for the Washington Post, set off a bit of a firestorm with a column yesterday arguing that groups like Rock the Vote have failed in their attempts to increase youth voting turnout and that, inasmuch as there is a surge in youth voter turnout, its attributable not to nonpartisan youth political groups, but to excitement over Barack Obama, who’s a favorite among young people.

Rampell argues that attempts to portray voting as “hip” or nonconformist through “public service announcements, celebrity endorsements and thugged-out streetwear” have failed. While I’d love to hear Rampell’s definition of “thugged-out streetwear,” I’m more curious about her assessment that “treating voting as a way to rise up against ‘the system’ clearly hasn't worked.”

“Voting is inherently an act of obedience, an endorsement of the system,” Rampell contends. This brings with it a whiff of folks who voted for Nader in 2000, arguing that there was “no real difference” between George W. Bush and Al Gore before being disowned by all of their friends. Voting isn’t an all-or-nothing affair where you either agree with “the system” by voting or disagree with it by not voting. Young people get involved with politics for a million different reasons. Some want us out of Iraq. Some want us to stay there. Some want to ban abortion. Others want to ensure reproductive rights are protected. There are countless flavors when it comes to youth voters, and this is an easy rebuttal to the notion that it’s inherently self-defeating to market voting as a rebellious act. If a young person is voting for a candidate who will alter a long-standing status quo with which he or she is unhappy, then why shouldn’t it bring with it a feeling of rebelliousness?

Obviously, it’s trickier to get people fired up about the act of voting in the abstract than it is about voting for X or Y candidate. It’s something Campus Progress, Rock the Vote, and a number of other nonpartisan groups have to deal with. Some campaigns have been more effective than others, but, overall, the numbers indicate that the movement is working. Rock the Vote and CIRCLE have shown convincingly that the uptick in youth voting is not a one-shot deal and is not the result of any one candidate, but has been going on since 2004 and is gaining momentum. How can this trend be Obama-based when it’s been going on for so long?