That was my perspective! Kurt Loder is 8 & 6 years older than my own parents but was cool enough when I was a teenager that I didn’t even notice his age and thought him “one of us” GenXers. I was a kid, so what did I know, except that my parents weren’t as cool, informed, or informative as Kurt Loder.

He was the first & only “news guy” that I stopped to watch/listen to until the first Gulf War, when I finally started to notice the world around me at 16yo. Rock the Vote campaigns stuck in my head even back then, but I didn’t vote in any elections until I got out of the military, making the 2000 election my first. Voting while stationed elsewhere was difficult back then, especially when you didn’t know how to vote at all. Being a Floridian immersed in the “hanging chads” recount, I’ve learned a ton about our government and politics ever since. Kurt Loder started my news-junkie habit before I knew being a news-junkie was a thing. lol I credit him with my participation in staying informed and voting accordingly.

I will say that my parents not voting had a lot to do with me not knowing how and is why I took my son with me starting with that 2000 election, and every election after that until he started voting when he was finally old enough to register.