Who wins elections — the politician with a sound vision for the future, or the one who can tap into the emotions of voters?
That’s likely a question you’ve asked yourself as you consider the various candidates running for office this election cycle. As we’ll see in our double selection for this month, even the most optimistic, bright youngsters know politics is a game of strategy as much as substance. The documentaries “Girls State” and “Boys State” begin with the same premise. Hundreds of 17-year-old high achievers have been selected for a weeklong experiment in running mock governments. The films follow girls in Missouri and boys in Texas who run for office, write and pass legislation and argue legal cases in front of teen judges that form a state Supreme Court.
Boys State and Girls State camps started as a form of civic education. Local chapters of the American Legion, a veterans service organization, began Boys State in 1935 to counter the Young Pioneer movement. The Young Pioneers were similar to the Boy Scouts, offering recreation opportunities for kids. But their summer camps also included primers on the benefits of socialism and communism. The Auxiliary American Legion, a separate but related organization, has regularly hosted Girls State since 1948.
Directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine describe the two films as “siblings” rather than twins. The drama of “Boys State,” filmed in summer 2018 and released in 2020, unfolds quickly. We follow several Texas teens who run for Boys State governor and their campaigns climax with a nail-biting election.
This year’s “Girls State” is more of a slow-burn. The Missouri girls start to realize that their program, which includes sing-alongs, cupcake decorating, curfews and dress codes, doesn’t seem to treat aspiring politicos as seriously as the Boys State program playing out on the same college campus. Towards the end of the film, one teen discovers a major driver of differences between the two: the girls’ program had a third of the funding of the boys’.
Every state program runs a bit differently; California’s went co-ed last year, for example. Funding disparities aside, why watch these films for a series about economics? It turns out that young people are just as concerned about the economy as older voters. A recent poll found that the most important problem for voters under 29 years old is cost of living and inflation, especially the costs associated with health care and housing.
Many men under 30 who feel socially and economically “left behind” have become more conservative in their political views. Young women, however, have become much more liberal over the past 25 years, according to Gallup poll data. The youngest voters’ political views are now more divided by gender than any other age group measured.
We look forward to unpacking these issues and more over the next few weeks. We hope you’ll watch these two films and then reply to this email with your thoughts and questions.
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