An Open Letter To Young, Disillusioned 2008 Obama Supporters

[babylonsister]

An Open Letter To Young, Disillusioned 2008 Obama Supporters
October 8, 2012
by James Schlarmann


Hey Everyone,

Look, I know that Obama didn’t deliver a 4% unemployment rate, and I know that things have not exactly been perfect these last four years. But that is no excuse for a good 20% or more of you to just stop caring about who our President is. Or are you all telling me the “enthusiasm” gap is present simply because you now believe that a NeoCon administration is what this country needs? Did you hit your fucking head on a beam and it wiped out your memory of what the country was like in 2009 when Obama took office?

You don’t bleed over three-quarters of a million jobs a month out of your economy and turn it around on a dime. I know that you all were young and idealistic back in 2008. You were probably just about to graduate, or had just graduated and you thought that by participating in a historical election you’d be guaranteeing prosperity and a booming economy. But here’s a reality check for you : it didn’t. There was still hard work to do, and frankly there’s a lot of hard work left if we’re going to ensure everything we did in the last four years isn’t wiped out by a massive tax cut for the rich and God only knows how many wars.

So Obama didn’t hand-deliver Utopia to you. Grow up, kids. Seriously, grow up. You need to be more enthusiastic about Obama this year than you were in 2008. Think about it for a minute, would you? In spite of having an openly combative, hostile, and obstructionist opposing party in Congress, the economy has managed to recover. Has it recovered to the point it was at when the economy was booming? No. But things change. An absolute glut of baby boomers lost their jobs, and these are people who likely would have been retiring in the near future regardless. The economy is shifting and President Obama wants to make education and training a priority so we can get even more people back into a new, re-energized workforce.

But he can’t do it if 20% of his supporters put their head down and cry into their grande mocha lattes.

Buck up, buttercups. It’s not fucking supposed to be easy, you know? When you vote for someone you’re acknowledging they are going to try their hardest to accomplish what we want need them to accomplish. Your vote isn’t a contract with the candidate to deliver the impossible. And as President Clinton reminded us all, there is not a single man or woman on this Earth that could have completely fixed the economy in just four years, not in the state it was left in.


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http://www.politicalgarbagechute.com/an-open-letter-to-young-disillusioned-2008-obama-supporters/

[sheckley]

1. AMEN

he's been given such a hard hand to deal. another 4 years will get us back on top. we can't give up on Obama!

[Scootaloo]

2. I agree with the sentiment, even if i see the targeting as disingenuous buck-passing.

Somehow, people rallied behind FDR despite his early inability to do anything about hte worst crisis that's threatened our nation since the civil war. Seriously, the depression was beyond his control, the Republicans weren't helping then, either, and hey, look at that, the entire middle of the nation is a windblown desert for eight years. But Americans still stuck with him because he was going in the right direction.

Which is what a lot of DU posters don't seem to "get." This isn't like a TV show, folks. Don't expect loose threads to be wrapped up at the "end of the season." No, Obama is not a perfect politician, giving us a perfect game; and I can't help but notice that he's the only president who's ever been held to such a rigid standard and wonder why (I have my suspicions...)

He's going in the right direction. We're not going to get a dream candidate who ushers in a progressive revolution and completes it by the end of year four, it just will not fucking happen. He's too centrist for you? I know you don't like hearing it, but tough fucking shit, the other guy is a right-wing maniac, and Obama's predecessor was a right-wing maniac as well. Slightly-left-of-center is a huge fucking improvement over "Heralding biblical armageddon" that we get from the Republicans. If you can't support a guy who's slightly-left-of-center, you're never going ot get someone who's further to the left. It's an incremental thing, folks.

[Tippy]

3. It may not be perfect.....but it's dam good....Spread it far and wide

[bvar22]

4. If I could UnRec, I would.

Do you expect to energize or attract voters through insults, hyperbole, and StrawMen?
This "Open letter" comes off as Whiny, Blamey, and Condescending.
This is NOT the way.

Many legitimately feel excluded from the 1st Obama Administration.
(I could post a list).
Validating their position, and encouraging them to rise up and go Once More Into the Battle despite their legitimate grievances would bear better results.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

5. +1 my thoughts exactly

Because insulting and berating young voters always works

[babylonsister]

6. So maybe you should write one? Every little bit helps!