Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
The Youth Are Getting Restless
NEW YORK - Young voters were an important factor in Barack Obama's victory last Nov. 4, but will their new political enthusiasm stand the test of time?
According to national exit polls and the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), 66 percent of an estimated 23 million voters between the ages of 18 and 29 backed Obama in the presidential election. About half of that number, 32 percent, chose John McCain.
With Obama's inauguration less than a week away, and the country mired deep in an economic crisis and two overseas wars, youth advocates say that the challenge now will be to maintain that engagement and forge new alliances between young people and other civil society movements.
"They have to figure out a way to keep young people involved on a legislative basis," Jane Fleming Kleeb, executive director of Young Voter PAC, told IPS. "The key task is to figure out how to get young people to be basically political players in the Washington DC atmosphere. And that is going be a very heavy lift."
Energized by Obama's personal charm and progressive rhetoric, and boosted by popular Internet social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook, youth voter turnout rose to more than 50 percent, an increase of about five percentage points over the 2004 election exit polls, according to CIRCLE.
So what can be done to maintain the enthusiasm of young voters once the honeymoon is over? Kleeb said that since most youth groups don't have much of a presence in Washington, they have to team up with established grassroots lobbies, like labor unions, to make sure that youth don't get left out of the equation when policies are formulated.
Peter Levine, director of CIRCLE, sees great potential. "Young people who supported Obama should be able to continue to press for political change, which really means now legislative change," he told IPS. "They should be enlisted in things like the battle for climate change legislation and have ways to advocate on a grassroots level for legislation."
So how big is the danger that young people will become disenchanted once they see that the new administration cannot solve the country's myriad problems within a couple of months or even years?
Kleeb is optimistic. "I think that young people are very aware that this is going to be a heavy lift. They don't expect that health care is going to be available for Americans overnight. And this the wonderful thing about this generation -- that while they are very idealistic, they also know that change within the government structures is going to be fairly slow."
Levine points out: "There is a real need for resilience because it is likely to be bad times. There is no way that a president can solve that problem. These expectations are too high. There is a risk that they will be."
"It is obviously way too early to say this, but people are making the analogy to 1932. [Franklin D.] Roosevelt won the enduring support of the majority of Americans. He was elected to five terms even though he didn't solve the Great Depression."
Taylor Black, 25, is not a typical young voter. The Brooklyn schoolteacher started off as an Obama supporter. "I voted for him in the primaries," Black told IPS. But in the presidential election, he opted for independent candidate Ralph Nader.
What made him change his mind and swim against the stream? "I was disappointed. Over the summer I noticed Obama's policies were becoming more and more corporate," Black said. ''Obama's campaign was full of a lot of emotion, which is good. But it wasn't very substantive and also wasn't very progressive. In a lot of ways, just based on his debates, he seemed to do that old Democrat thing."
So what does Black expect from an Obama administration?
"I am not expecting hope -- or change," he said with a laugh. "I am expecting him to mitigate our relationships with other countries. At least this is a good starting place. I credit his leadership abilities. I'd like to see how he handles the [750-billion-dollar Wall Street] bailout exactly and how much he listens to corporations."
"And the corporate donations paying his way throughout his campaign are obviously going to come into play because those people still have their receipts. They are expecting something," he added.
As a college graduate, Black fits the profile of most under-30 voters. Continuing the trend observed in past elections, young people with no college experience were underrepresented at the polls in 2008.
Seventy percent of young voters had gone to college, meaning that college-educated youth were much more likely to vote. And people with less than a high school diploma represented only six percent of young voters, compared to 14 percent in the general population.
To bridge this educational gap, Kleeb is calling for youth groups and others involved in campaigning to stop focusing so exclusively on university campuses as their outreach tactic, since only about 25 percent of young people in the U.S. attend college.
"It is really about going out into the communities, going to places where young people hang out, whether that is coffee shops, bars, or other places outside of schools," she said.
Levine agrees, but sees two other major reasons for the educational gap. "The really good civic education programmes tend to be reserved for stronger students in better schools, so that just exacerbates the problem because the very students that need civic education the most are the least likely to get it. And that is something we should change through policy."
"And the other thing is that the context of working class life in America has changed for the worse in a way that is much deeper than this election issue," he said.
Levine says that many of the "intermediaries" that used to bridge the gap between individuals and government have disintegrated for the working class. "Thirty years ago, you were more likely to be in a union if you didn't go to college, which makes sense because unions are for blue-collar people," he said.
But today, Levine added, union membership has shrunk dramatically. "You are actually more likely to be in a union if you have a college degree," he noted.
- Posted in
52 Comments so far
Show AllThe table is set and the platform is ready for Obama to leap from political whore to Statesman. Both domestic and international support await his every move. He can begin by starting domestic prosecution for war crimes and internationally by becoming a more tolerant and compassionate neighbor to the rest of the world. He can change the course of history by standing up for what is right, not for what is politically correct.
Hoa binh
ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!
regardless of the entrenched powers -- this is really the FIRST time that an american president has enjoyed so much support and expectation from the world that it EMPOWERS HIM to take ON the establishment from his Bully Pulpit..and then SHOW america and the world :
"THIS is what the establishment is LIKE if a president dares go against it"....and let the SUN shine on these dark forces and make them RUN FOR COVER.....
it's really IN the hands of Obama to use his intelligence, his charisma, and if he REALLY believes his own rhetoric -- that is POWER and he should use it for good.
the PLATFORM is OPEN for him to take or not.
if he acts TRULY boldly - in the economy (such as putting any expenses ON PEOPLE, WAGES, etc..RATHER than the BANKS) - the Militarism , such as ORDERING with NO second-guessing the phasing out of the american militarism, etc...--
HE will be MORE SURPRISED than ANYONE at how much the GREAT majority of americans will openly rally AROUND HIM - against the establishment - represented by the Think Tanks, the conservatives railing against "socialism" , the Pelosi/Reid, Emanual sell-outs...who will BE INSTANTLY MARGINALIZED as they deserve...to open the way for more progressive candidates.
it's really obama's call...since HE after all -- is seen as the "one that calls the shots"...and defines how he wants to lead.
if he is bold in the right direction - he will become a great president.
if not -- he becomes another glorified slave of the status quo.
It is alas a forgone conclusion he will sell out:
"abetted by two Clinton-era secretaries of the treasury, Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers. Unfortunately, the two, who should have mustered the grace to depart public life in deep contrition over their failed policies, are prominent in the Obama campaign.
Rubin, who pocketed tens of millions running Goldman Sachs before becoming treasury secretary, is the man who got President Clinton to back legislation by then-Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, to unleash banking greed on an unprecedented scale. What followed, thanks to a rare display of bipartisan teamwork, was a total dismantling of the regulatory regime that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had put in place during the New Deal, thus undermining the finest legacy of the Democratic Party. Under the guidance of Rubin and Summers, Clinton signed off on the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, Gramm's two key pieces of legislation, during his final two years in the White House."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/the-battle-for-obamas-eco_b_136757.html
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1444764.php/PROFILE_Larry_Summers_-_Obamas_chief_economic_advisor_
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/21/stocks-fluctuate-after-se_n_145569.html
When you combine this with self proclaimed "Zionist" Joe Biden, Hilary "I will obliterate Iran" as Sec. of State, and Rahm "I volunteered for the IDF" Emmanuel as chief of staff, expect 4 more years of Bush, with a couple million tossed at wind mills, and some youth speak about a "blackberry" generation wired President.
Disappointed does even BEGIN to cover it! :(
You do have a keen eye.
Ray Berthiaume
I too am uneasy. The major issues: Wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, one-payer health care, support of the Israeli massacre of Gaza, taxing the wealthy - Obama is set on continuing Bush policies for the most part. I wonder if he will really close down Gitmo.
If Gitmo and the other gulags are shut down, you can bet your boots that they will just be mothballed until needed again, not torn down. (What'll you bet that KBR gets the no-bid contract to mothball them?)
Many detainees are being shipped to "secret" bases see my post above in response to joehope.
How is withdrawing from Iraq, ending torture, and closing Guantanamo "continuing Bush policies"? Why do you hate Obama so much that you have to invent lies against him?
Obama is going to withdraw in EXACTLY the same slow way as negotiated in Bush's SOFA agreement:
" [OBAMA] I don’t think it’s quite good enough yet because I think we have to do a little more training. We’ve got to build up the logistical capacity. I think the possibilities of ethnic strife breaking out again are still present, precisely because the political system has not stabilized itself yet. But I do believe that we are at a point now where we can start drawing down troops. I think we can time a process where the drawing down of troops [IS] parallel to building up the capacity in Iraq and the SOFA agreement that…was just put forward I think reflects that reality.
That sounds like he’s on board with the 2011 deadline for total withdrawal. Obama’s campaign proposal is, of course, to withdraw combat forces by mid-2010. He’s long advocated a residual force for the purposes of (mostly) training the Iraqi security forces. But if he’s on board with the SOFA, then we’re out — all out, adviser/trainer forces and everything — by Dec. 31, 2011. There’s a provision in Article 25 section 5 of the SOFA allowing the Iraqi government “to ask the U.S. government to keep specific forces for the purposes of training and support of the Iraqi security forces” if 2011 is too soon to stop the training mission, but that would require another “special agreement” negotiation with the Iraqis on a new deadline. If Obama is, in fact, embracing the SOFA, then for the first time from him we’d get a deadline for complete, not partial, withdrawal from Iraq."
http://washingtonindependent.com/14615/obama-seems-to-embrace-us-iraq-deal-all-troops-home-in-2011
If anything it's Obama foot dragging with language like:
"I think we have to do a little more training. We’ve got to build up the logistical capacity. I think the possibilities of ethnic strife breaking out again are still present, precisely because the political system has not stabilized itself yet." Which is pretty much a reversal of his "anti war" platform he ran on when he threw Hilary's vote for the Iraq war in her face.
Obama it seems bought the "surge" koolaid because it was more profitable for his campaign despite the sad fact that the actual reason the violence is down in Iraq is ethnic cleansing and paying off the resistance.
And Guantanamo is being replaced by a series of "secret" military bases:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6664947&page=1
Progressives were sold a bill of goods on Obmba, and yes I AM bitter.
The kids are in for a rude awakening. The Che Guevara revolutionary styled image/poster of Obama that is (still) being used in the media to lay the perception/facade of "change" will soon be fading and blowing down the streets into the gutters.
Given Obama's picks for his cabinet, it sure looks like they'll be plenty of young, broken hearts and spirits out there.
When I read the headline, I thought it was going to be about the actions in Greece and a number of other European countries, and in Oakland, California.
In other words about an angry youth who are done singing kumbaya and are ready for more effective tactics.
But no, it was another Obamaphilia piece. What nonsense.
---USAn---
Yes, me too! What a disappointment!
The topic discussed in this article is key. There are a lot of progressive youth voters who put in a lot of work to get Obama elected on the belief that he was going to fundamentally change Washington. Whether these members of the progressive youth have misplaced their hope in a candidate that isn't likely to deliver it (which I believe is the case), is irrelevant. What matters is that these members of the progressive youth are active in the process and are on board to make change.
It is going to be very important for existing progressive organizations to reach out to this energized group of citizens and embrace their energy and drive. It will be these two forces combined, putting heavy and constant pressure on the Obama Administration, that will be this nation's best hope for actual change over the next four years. We all know that Obama is not going to make giant leaps forward on his own, so it is necessary for existing progressive organizations to reach out to this energized progressive youth and then mobilize to push for real, substantive, progressive change.
-Chris
For more independent views you can visit:
http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com
http://chriscommons.blogspot.com
"but will their new political enthusiasm stand the test of time?"
The question is can it withstand the elite's cutlery. The youth's political enthusiasm is most certainly on the chopping block today. Specifically it is that enthusiasm for universal equity and justice. Let us dice it into small squares says Henry Paulson. No no no no! Let us grate it into shards says Warren Buffett. Bill Gates wishes to put it into the food processor. We are hunnnnnnngry, say the elites. We love to eat the spirits of our fellow human beings for dinner every day! Those of the new generation are the most yummy of all! And after we extract their spirits, and EAT them, the poor wretches will become OUR SLAVES! Then, they will say things like "I used to be a leftist until I started a family. Then, my food bill went from $3/day to $30/day!" Or "I find that working WITHIN the system (i.e. Demok triangulation) is best now with my $1M mortgage!" You see our point now? The point of our knife! God Bless the United States of America! Don't tell them they can emancipate themselves from us. Don't tell them!
Any 'progressive' that voted for Obama is ignorant and a fool. You should have voted for McCain; there is no difference.
We will get what we deserve.
http://www.youtube.com/user/GreenProgress
Republican troll.
You calling anyone a troll is laughable!
What else can you call someone who claims there is no difference between McCain and Obama!!! It's like when people spout the nonsense that Gore would have invaded Iraq. It's either pro-Nader or republican garbage, but it's garbage all the same. It's aim is purely to make the Democrats look bad. I apologize, but I'm sick of it.
There is very little difference, both are parties of war for empire, and taking money from the public and giving it to unaccountable banksters. Although I am a hard leftist even Ron Paul is better than that, and Kucinich, McKinney and Nader? A hundred times better...
Bitter Obama voter... :(
And anyone who voted for a non-viable third party candidate has nothing to show for it but an arrogant, self-righteous perch from which they look down on more pragmatic (if unhappy) voters who can at least distinguish a necessary choice between the lesser of two evils. Your vote really mattered, didn't it!
About time they get restless!
I'm not young, I voted for Obama, and I am already disenchanted with many of his cabinet choices and his position on the remaining $350 billion unaccounted for taxpayer bailout.
JH,
Thank you for voting for Obama.
Please don't lose hope.
Why are you feeling disenchanted?
JoeHope,
Please get lost, you filthy, disgusting DLC troll.
If you support the mass murder in Gaza, you ARE a mass murderer!
Ok?
---USAn---
the way things are established and deeply entrenced with these destructive policies and economics and social order in america -- one can only say about the Youth:
POOR YOUTH -- they have NO idea YET how MUCH and how DEEPLY they have been sold out by the generation of their OWN parents. ...and the irony is: it's all been done in the name of "security, future, OUR children's Future"........
but done on the basis of SHORt-TERM selfish interests...
and the price will be paid by the young ones.
the last 30 years makes one wonder -- WHO is the REAL "teenager" or spoiled brat? it looks like it's the american generation that is in its 30-40,50,60's today....the VERY one that had the power to RESIST the kind of "overgrown child" tendencies but instead indulged itself like there is no tomorrow...
and finally -- the BILL is starting to arrive...to paid in full by the children today.......
You are right, Teddy, the worst of our generation took control. But it's not surprising since we were raised in a time of greed and violence as well, though initially rebelled against it; we abhorred to think we'd become like our fathers and mothers. The music of the time was awesome, full of energy, full of hope, of rebellion.
What happened to us?
I watched my brothers lavish their children with material 'things' in an attempt to assuage their guilt for not being there. My eldest brother had 2 twin daughters, one of whom became an alcoholic, after being raised on Ritalin and numbed with antidepressants. The other joined the military, where she drank heavily while stationed in Iraq; now she is bitter and morose that the world doesn't proffer her everything she wants when she wants it (like her parents did). What an enormous disillusionment it must be.
My other brother had a son who was also on Ritalin. When he was young he seemed like a perfectly normal kid (before Ritalin). I wondered when he became ADD or ADHD affected. Probably if I was in his shoes they would have drugged me as well. His sister was practically given everything by her mother and mother in law, and is already experiencing liver damage at 24 (from drinking); she's also been arrested several times.
My nieces and nephew aren't alone; there is a deep spiritual sickness reflected in this, and an unspeakable emptiness that permeates our whole society. We failed in our attempt to fill the void with material things and entertainments.
Herein, lies a great danger as well as great opportunity for meaningful change. And I believe time to decide is growing short.
My generation (Generation X) was sold short by outsourcing by the boomers starting in the 80s (greed is good) and now there is no work for us and too many of us are fucked up on drugs and hate, shocking I know, and alas a very appropriate harvest for what was sowed in the 80s. What comes around goes around, remember that next time you see a "gansta" youth in a hoodie listening to loud hip-hop and giving you the evil eye.
If my generation revolts it's far more likely to be about AK-47s and firebombs then peace love and flowers like the 60s, and if you don't believe that then you probably don't know many young people. Sad but true. :(
And I am one of the lucky ones BTW with a good college education and thus "mellow," and others? Not so much...
The firebombs, at carefully selected unoccupied targets, are fine, but please no AK-47 's, at least not until things get a whole lot worse. Remember, it by threatening the _material_ and economic interests of the ruling classes that we get their attention, while still adhering to the principles of nonviolence.
The riots in Greece, and in Oakland, never led to a single injury or death, yet they won concessions that would have never have been possible through the uniquely USAn, passive "nonviolence" as exemplified by the utterly ineffective "kumbaya" form of protest.
---USAn---
I'm not endorsing anything I am merely describing the rage I know exists in the disenfranchised members of my generation and younger. Don't shoot the messenger, instead if you want to talk to the kidz go to digg.com and speak your mind, shrug.
Boomers at least had a crack at the sordid "American Dream" in the 80s and those of us in our early 40s and younger? Not so much...
What's wrong, afraid your boss may be reading this?
---USAn---
I'm my own boss dude. And I'm not afraid of anyone, after I slept in a net made of parachute cord at 150 feet in a Redwood tree in a howling rainstorm with 70 mph winds I don't really do the fear thing. I've also been removed from a lockdown by a cop with a grinder, and you?
And to continue obviously I think a general strike and Ghandian non violence ought to be tried FIRST. If that doesn't work though and they start rounding up Muslims, dissidents, gays, etc, I will fight back by force of arms, count on it.
Rather than blame an entire generation, why not recognize it as class warfare (see my post above)? The wealthy, ruling elite reacted to the 60s with tremendous fear because the "boomers" brought it to the streets and created some real change. And it wasn't all peace, love and flowers. There was plenty of rage (Watts, Detroit, Chicago, Stonewall in NYC, Wounded Knee, etc.), plenty of beatings, plenty of blood. Do Gen-Xers really think they're the only ones who have been fucked over the past thirty years? My oldest brother at 60 just got canned from a domestic violence outreach program he created for a big health insurer. My next oldest brother (a veteran of several student riots) just lost his small bakery. My sister's going bankrupt from medical bills, and my third brother has seen most of his co-workers' jobs outsourced while he hangs on by a bitter, disillusioned thread. I'm all for revolution, but let's at least identify the right enemy and know where to look for dependable allies that will strengthen us, not split us. Your (our) allies are not in any one generation, they're in a class. Many old warriors are on your side!
I actually agree it's a class problem, but Gen Xers did get fucked particularly hard by class warfare of globalization. At least boomers can remember a time when the U.S. had a manufacturing base such that unionized working class manufacturing jobs would pay for a nice house. If you tell the average Gen Xer about that unless they know some history they will look at you like you are speaking Martian, now even owning a small business doesn't guarantee owning a house. The class warfare against my generation is MUCH worse than against the boomers, if you can't see that you aren't paying attention, hint come to Detroit and look around sometime, it's an eye opener:
http://www.detroityes.com/home.htm
And yes I know there are good hearted boomers and older like Chomsky, Zinn, Goodman, etc, OTOH the fact boomers so drastically let down their children IS going to lead to some bitterness dude, count on it...
Detroit, eh? That's the area where I grew up (1957-1984), and where the auto industry in the 70s (you know, the first time they totally fucked up) fucked the boomers pretty damned hard, too. See Michael Moore's first film "Roger and Me"--that's "my" generation being tossed onto the globalization garbage heap. Do you remember the famous billboard on westbound I-96 that said, "Will the last one out of Michigan please turn off the lights?"
Anyway, we're on the same page here, so I'll ask your patience for one last reiteration: class warfare is incessant. It has been going on next to forever. That makes it hard for me to see it in terms of "my" generation and "your" generation, although I heartily agree with you that the class war worsened from 1980 on. I watched everything erode while my kids grew up and my own career in environmental protection and restoration amounted to little more than a fart in the wind (personally, I never chased the American dream--always mocked it, in fact). Now, there is little to nothing for my kids (22 and 20 years-old) to anticipate in terms of opportunity. They are bitter and enraged, no doubt about it, but so am I. I make them one promise, and I'll make it to you, too. Revolt, and I will join you. One-hundred percent.
Always have revolted and always will, been to more protests against Bush and his stupid war than I can remember, canvassed fro Greenpeace in the early 90s, spent time UP in the Redwoods in the early 2000s. My point though is that if you can't just brush off the rage of younger people who have REALLY gotten screwed by globalization. Yes to all ages working together with boomers that reject the "greed is good" ethos, no to just saying we are all in the same boat, again there is an economic reason you see so many Gen Xers and younger are in hoodies glaring in hostility at the world. We are now the new "lost" generation only without the money the "losts" had in the 20s. And boomers should be the last people to be surprised that Gen X has it's own language, culture and grievances against the world maaaaaaan, like wow, far out.
I'm not trying to brush off the rage, I'm trying to fan it, even if it blows back on me.
You missed my point, not ALL Gen-Xers or boomers are the same. If you/we let the worst of your generation rule, the exploitation will accelerate. My nieces (born of my brother Banker) are still hardcore republican, even though their 'class' has dropped 3 notches since they got out on their own. This kind of ignorance is almost impossible to penetrate because they do not WANT to see the cause/effect relationship, just like those now enraged (for whatever reason) do not see that more violence is not the answer either.
And you missed my point I acknowledged if you can read there are some good hearted boomers like Amy Goodman, my point is as a demographic group Gen X got screwed and yes we ARE better about it, that's way we roll, deal.
Too much hostility, hoot, that's what you'll roll with, both destroying yourself and world with it. Your human nature is my human nature and my father's human nature. While believing 'your' way is superior or thinking you understand 'our' mistakes and can correct them, you will betray yourself--mostly. Without a deeper understanding all such pursuits amount to foolish vanity. Seek that 'understanding' first, then you will better understand how to effect meaningful change. Without it, you will only make things worse like we did (many boomer hearts were in the right place at one time, then the insecurity that comes with age--and enclosure within the family unit--came upon them like it did their fathers and mothers, and will your generation as well, unless you remain aware). But hostility and pride must go first. And yes, my friend, I can read as well as write, but sometimes skimming does not catch all. You clearly prefer the hammer, but it is not always the appropriate instrument.
Yeah sure you first dude, if the boomers haven't absolutely been the most arrogant generation in recent history I don't know which one has been. :( Many of us are sick of the airwaves filled with 40 year old music, and the pontificating of former ex hippies who ALWAYS had it better than my generation did. And no it's not just me, the cynicism of Xeer phenomena like the "Dailey Show" and band Nirvana are a direct response to being sold down the river, you can mouth apologetics like a generational equivalent of a Zionist apologist all day and night, but just like for Israel, reality is catching up to all apologists rapidly I assure you.
And as for destroying the world I spend 3 days in the Eureka jail for locking down to a sawmill gate, have you ever put your neck on the line for wild lands?
This isn't about one generation or another, it's about a species trajectory that changed with the advent of agriculture and accelerated with the industrial revolution and human population explosion. Every generation has had voices ranging from right to left, from repugnant to virtuous, from superstitious to wise. One may trace threads of wisdom back over hundreds of years, voices from every generation that have counseled against unchecked avarice and, more recently, the befouling of our planet. Unfortunately, wealth and power generally accrue to the greedy and ruthless, the worst of the worst. That it is culminating now in a worldwide collapse--ecological devastation rolling through to economic ruin--is not the fault of a single generation, but of a constancy of unabated selfishness that typically follows family lines of inheritance. Blame the baby-boomers if you want, but you'll make more sense of it if you examine family trees like the Bush-Walker line and the sycophants (religious, political and financial) that attend them.
I still think there's a groundswell building. Obama is far from an ideal candidate politically. I won't be swooning that much over the symbolism of the inauguration. My relief that he defeated John McCain has dissipated. He's not going to be a savior. We the people of American and the world are our own saviors, and say what you want about Obama, and I'll be the first to nitpick the heck out of it, I voted for Ralph Nader after all, he is workable. He's on rollerblades. He can be shoved into the right (left) direction. We shouldn't get high on the ganja of optimism and the fact that he's broken down the barrier of race nor should we submit to the heroin of cynicism. I see a lot of people on the left doing both of those things. Both of those things can rub off on younger people (35 here. Is that old? I can run for prez starting early next month...), and if they see apathetic, defeatist elders, it has the potential to make them the same way.
We can beat the bastards. Obama is key in that defeat. We just have to get in his ear, loudly. If we don't THEY will.
Here's how you keep the youth interested: Listen to them and act on their suggestions before they get burnt out like we did after the 60's. I hope the Obama administration will take the lead in a new form of government: of the people, by the people, and for the people. I also hope that the Change.gov websites blog and suggestion section is not just being sent to cyber-space; that someone besides Homeland Security is monitoring the thoughts written therein. I have read many good suggestions, most of them sound like they are from progressives; much about Single Payer Health ins.. I might be getting "fooled again" unlike Pres. Bush, but I still am hedging my bets on this administration, upcoming. They have the benefit of my doubt, but, the lobbyists are still there, and their money maks a lot more noise than the rank and file citizens petition and protest, so to the youth: You got to get their attention before they'll listen, and you have to take the higher ground so you can sleep at night, because unlike the lobbyists, you have a conscience.
Speak for yourself. I am not burned out. Loads of 60s vets in Veterans For Peace, and activist vets are still working for peace and social justice. The question is how do you get much of the youth who voted for Obama to move beyond merely pulling a lever and become active in their causes. Voting is subscribing to the fallacy of having a choice. It is, like religion, an opiate for the masses. How about getting out of the haze it produces?
12-23-2011 to 12-24-2012 You bet we are getting restless, we have to make this needed change, see? Its a change to a sustainable "ecology", see? Ecology, not economy, see? What side are you on?
This is great!!! Bring it to the street. It may be your last chance.
Might as well go to the street; you sure are not going to win at the ballot box...
Here's an opportunity for Democrats, i.e., Progressives to shoot themselves in the foot, again. Charles Rangel said he was going to re-introduce legislation into the House to level the military service (to the country) burden across society, i.e., across class. He is going to introduce a bill to reinstate the draft. Way to to go, Charlie. After its passage (doubtful) the young in the USA will be all gung ho to vote for progressive Democrats in the midterm elections of 2010. That's when Afghnaistan will have become Obama's war and quagmire. And if Democrats don't pass Rangel's bill, well then, they will be along with the republicans, setting the stage for further putting the burden onto the poor, mostly young. After all, there may be few jobs available, but the military is hiring. Catch 22 has befallen the One Party with two heads. Again.
ding, ding, ding, astute analysis,. I've always said that progressive rationals for the draft were phony as a 3 dollar bill.
Obama being a democrat is still part of the one party, war and coporate party. In the end he will piss down your backs and tell you it's raining, he will let the Zionists run Middle East foreign policy so don't look for change or peace there. Want Change You Can Believe In? Don't vote for anyone from the one party.