Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Young Obama Backers AWOL from Health Care Fight
NEW YORK - Add this to President Barack Obama's problems in selling his health care overhaul: A lot of the tech-savvy activists who helped put him in office are young, feeling indestructible and not all that into what they see as an old folks issue.
Obama Health Care supporter Keith Johnson of Saratoga Springs,N.Y. ,left, holds protest signs supporting government managed health care while talking with Werner Rentsch of Schoharie, N.Y. Johnson was counter protesting a anti-goverment managed health care rally in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009. A lot of the tech-savvy activists who helped put Obama in office are young, feeling indestructible and not all that into what they see as an old folks issue. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink) It's a crucial gap in support and one the White House may have to correct if Obama is to regain the momentum and get Congress to act on his top domestic priority.
Matt Singer, a 26-year-old founder of the liberal group Forward Montana and an activist in the health care trenches, has tried to engage young people.
"Right now we're seeing a big conversation with seniors, but you're not seeing the same mobilization among young people who are President Obama's core constituency," Singer said. "The age demographic most supportive of reform has not been engaged, and it makes me very nervous."
Younger people are generally healthier and rely on less medical care, particularly young working men who make up the largest group that goes voluntarily without health insurance. They also are less likely to be as vocal at contentious town halls; many are either working or in school during the daytime forums.
Among senior citizens, the fear is palpable about Obama's efforts, reflected in public polling that shows support falling for his proposals. Seniors worry that paying for the $1 trillion-plus, 10-year overhaul will mean cuts in Medicare benefits.
Talk of death panels and "pulling the plug on grandma," although discredited, has scared seniors. Sensing opportunity, the Republican National Committee announced a "Seniors' Health Care Bill of Rights" Monday that pledges to protect the elderly from any attempt to ration health care because of age.
Seniors preferred Republican Sen. John McCain by a 55-43 percent margin in last year's general election - the only age group Obama lost.
Determined to energize his activist base, Obama talked up health care in an online town meeting last week with Organizing for America, the campaign operation reconstituted as the White House political arm. The operation has stepped up its push on health care, hosting thousands of events across every state and congressional district.
"It's great to be here with all of you because it reminds me of how we got here in the first place," Obama told the group in the meeting.
In an interview with radio talk show host Michael Smerconish, he also promoted his proposal for young people up to the age of 26 to get health coverage under their parents' insurance plans. "It gives them a way of having coverage until they get that job that has a little bit more security," he said.
Democrats on Capitol Hill are taking up the challenge as well. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and other members of the party leadership planned to hold a news conference Wednesday in Washington to discuss the ways the plan would help young people.
Said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who has researched the youth vote: "I think the White House thought they could mobilize their younger supporters just by saying, 'Come out.' But now they realize they have to run a real campaign."
The question is whether it's too late in the game for the 18-29-year-old voters who turned out in unprecedented numbers for Obama in 2008, giving him 66 percent of their vote to 32 percent for Republican McCain. Polling shows that younger voters are the most supportive of health care reform - but also the most likely to be uninsured.
Heather Smith, executive director of the youth-oriented group Rock the Vote, said that the heated arguments that have dominated the debate recently - from the future of Medicare to "death panels" to claims of rationing - have seemed far removed from the lives of young people, whose health-insurance worries primarily center on the cost and availability of coverage.
"What we've learned by working with this generation through polling is that attacks, rather than dialogue, doesn't attract them," Smith said. "Beyond the screaming, there's a tremendous amount of interest and concern among young people. It's just not something you see."
But critics also point to a failure of Obama's message, saying that by focusing so intently on the concerns of senior citizens the White House may have lost the attention of younger voters. They argue that the tools Obama used so successfully to mobilize young voters in the campaign, such as community organizing and social networking, need to be reintroduced and used more aggressively in this debate.
"If we're going to keep this generation engaged, we have to move away from the politics of partisan talking points and move back to what was done last year: the politics of engagement, citizenship, democracy, online and on the ground activity, and conversations with peers," Smith said.
Lake, the Democratic pollster, said the lack of involvement by young people in the health care push may hint at a bigger concern for the White House: Some so-called Obama "surge" voters, who voted for the first time in 2008 and are largely younger and nonwhite, may not be as motivated to get involved in his signature causes, including health care.
"They say, 'I'm taking a break from politics, I'm uninformed about the system, I'm sick of Washington, I'm not going to help these people.' It's interesting that he hasn't countered that disengagement," Lake said.
To bring those voters back, Lake said Obama needs to draw on his own personal popularity and make the health care debate about him, rather than allow it to seem like a mishmash of legislation coming out of Capitol Hill.
"He hasn't said yet, 'This is my plan. The opponents are trying to take my plan away from me,'" Lake said.
That's the argument Amanda Mack, a 27-year old organizer in South Dakota, says she makes when she urges young people to participate in the debate.
"During the campaign, young people got involved because they believed in Barack Obama and health care is something he made a priority," Mack said. She added that she expected to see more activity around the issue in the fall, when colleges are back in session and younger families return from vacation.
Singer, of Forward Montana, echoed that but said Obama must move quickly to inspire his core supporters.
"To win, you've got to turn out your base. In this case, it's the pragmatic youth who trust Barack Obama and say, 'This seems reasonable to me,'" Singer said.
32 Comments so far
Show All"Younger people are generally healthier and rely on less medical care, particularly young working men who make up the largest group that goes voluntarily without health insurance."
That and they've probably realized that were duped by corporatist Obama's marketing campaign last fall.
Lack of a US single-payer health care system is affecting young Americans MORE than older Americans:
1) Potential enterpreneurs have a more difficult time starting a company.
2) Small businesses that primarily employ young people cannot afford medical insurance benefits for the owners or their employees.
3) Businesses of all sizes where young people want to work are failing because they can't compete with global competitors located in countries that have single-payer health care.
4) Millions of baby boomers are delaying retirement 5, 10 or 15 years from their family wage jobs solely for the purpose of retaining their affordable employer-based medical insurance. Those millions of jobs are therefore not available to young people.
Democrats, including Obama are going to find it tougher to get votes from millions of unemployed young Americans in 2010 and 2012.
This was predictable.
I've long said that the enthusiasm of the young supporters of Obama would last only as long and the beer and chicken wings lasted. Looks like b and cw are in short supply.
Good one Jerry...! You beat me to it...!
Obama's younger liberal supporters are too busy hobnobbing and "networking" at feel-good events like GreenDrinks and DrinkingLiberally and working at NGO's who toe-the-line and uncritically support their charismatic leader... out of fear of being socially ostracized or ridiculed for being "negative" or losing their cush job and the health-care benefits, ironically enough... Any mention of how Obama's policies are the SAME or worse than Bush is met with indignation and scorn... any reminder that ALL of this was predictable prior to the election is dismissed as sour-grapes... Any mention of the war crimes committed and civil liberties eroded are justified as "fighting terrorism"... Any betrayal of campaign promise or platform plank is explained by blaming the fake-opposition running interference so Obama can continue to be their champion even though he hasn't actually accomplished anything... Folks like me are laughed at or ignored, brushed off as a conspiracy theorist, and not invited back to the potluck, since they don't like the ideological dish that I brough to share...
They shrug off any connection Obama has with the CFR, Goldman Sachs, Kissinger, and Brzezinsky... Since they haven't done their own research into these issues, they have no idea what I am talking about, and downplay what little they do understand of the true power dynamics that shape US foreign and domestic policy... They have college degrees, masters & Ph.D.'s... And the inflated egos that come with the territory that prevent them from accepting fact that they were duped and used with charismatic posturing and fancy rhetoric by a demagogue that was groomed for the role, and a campaign that was more of a product of think tanks and Madison avenue to create the illusion of grassroots and community activist origins...
So they drink and slap skin and pat themselves on the back as their cognitive dissonance grows to fill the schism between their subjunctivitis and the facts-on-the-ground... Stay-the-course! Heck of a job, Obama! Change we can believe in! Got Hope?
This whole article seems to be talking about an a US in an alternate unverse somewhere.
Yes, it is dissapointing how few youth are involved in the healthcare push, but older poeple are hardly as this article describes. In accordance with the official blackout, there is no mention of the predominantly over-50 year olds organizing and rallying for single payer. July 30 has been utterly memory-holed. And of course, this means that they cannot mention tha most of the lack of support of Obama's plan comes from the left, not the right.
The AP seems to be almost entirely dedicated to slinging B.S. in our faces now.
matti: did you notice that too?
Have to make the "young" understand that their economic future is doomed if health insurance is not reformed.
So many lies, so little time to combat it all.
And so much money being spent by the corporations to fabricate and broadcast new lies and revisionist history faster than anybody can dispute them.
Among the myriad of strategic mistakes made by the Obama administration in regards to health care was their pitiful non-efforts to turn out their base to counter the all too predictable corporate-inspired obfuscation campaign waged by the health insurance industry & their legion of dupes & shills. Blame must also be assigned to the younger Obama-ites for not having the long range foresight (which is an all too common happenstance amongst that demographic generally) to insert themselves into this. For a political operation that rarely made a misstep in the campaign of '08, this is a first class stumble with huge ramifications.
Dude, c'mon.
It's not a "mistake" if it's done on purpose.
It's not a "stumble" to fail "to counter the all too predictable corporate-inspired obsfucation campaign(s) waged by the health insurance industry & their legion(s) of dupes & shills" if that was the INTENTION all along.
What did you think Mr. O meant when he said the insurance corporations would have "a seat at the table"? Did you think that they would have one, but National Health advocates would have one right next to it, and the arguments of both would hold equal weight with Obama? Did you fail to notice that it is the CONGRESS in these United States which negotiates bills that will become laws? Did you not wonder what was going on when Obama absolutely refused to use his bully pulpit to push Congress toward anything but vague platitudes? Surely you did not miss the fact that the only true compromise solution between private healthcare and the public's health available -H.R. 676- was put "off the table" (the same one the insurance corps. "have a seat" at) before negotiations even BEGAN, with no opposition from the Administration whatsoever?
Have you been asleep for the last thirty years?
How else could you be so naive and uninformed?
Why should ANYONE, let alone the young and busy, take time out of their day to fight for a steaming turd pile just because they are being told it is delicious chocolate pudding?
Ubanite and college-educated under 30s voted for Obama because they have no grasp of even recent history and wouldn't listen to the warnings of those who do.
Now they are disillusioned with Obama and have given up "pushing" him (as he cynically claimed to require) because (as his masters well know) they come from a generation even more absolutely grounded in an instant gratification mentality than the previous two. They failed to witness total and immediate "change", and so they have retreated from the scene.
Of course it doesn't help that "the scene" is dominated by fools or liars such as I'm afraid you seem to be (at least on this issue).
Who -other than equally foolish persons like myself- would want to waste their time in such things?
-matti.
My "chicken wings and beer" crack in the post above was a shooting off my mouth at the hip (try it sometime) in that I read the article too incompletely to notice the new version of cw and b now being offered by Obama to young voters. I mean of course his idea of allowing children to stay on their parents' insurance plans until they reach age of 26, presumably meaning whether they are "dependent" on those parents or not. Now here's something that the attention span of a college student might be able to accommodate: the prospect of an impending "cold world" in which one will be lucky to get a job with its employer-based health coverage. I know kids don't obsess over health issues as much as us elders, but a guaranteed health coverage in those launching years would be "nice" and maybe worth a few votes and phone-banking calls from Organizing for America to drum up support for Obama's "plan." Even though there's a slim to none chance that this provision will be written into the actual bill (along with the diminishing chance of a "public option")it's kind of what-the-hell, we can get a contribution from you and maybe a call to your member of Congress to support the "bill," however it may be emasculated after the "gang of 6" get through with it.
I believe that supporting this horrible mishmash of a sell-out to the insurance companies (Obama's bill) would do more harm than good. Even if a public option is included, it will fail, dooming any effort that smacks of government provided health care (such as the real answer, single payer) for another generation. Rallying youth to support such a doomed for failure "reform" would be disingenuous and harmful to coalition building around real reforms. Youth would realize that the left fell for crap, and wouldn't trust us to formulate a real solution to healthcare or anything else.
nosurrender: I agree totally and I'm starting to feel the same way after attending a couple of "faith-based" (PICO action network) rallies for "comprehensive health care reform" (as if the Obama plan was even close to that.) Are "people of faith" who, like the young, should be an integral part of any truly progressive movement, being led down the primrose path of disillusionment by a "crap" mobilization?
"Young Obama Backers AWOL from Health Care Fight"
Gee, surprise. If Obama had a plan, maybe he would also have supporters. Unless we are just supposed to "trust him".
So the question is - support what healthcare reform?
Generally, I like to be clear as to what I support.
Had Obama started with single payer, the republican hysteria wouldn't be any worse than it is now, but his base would rally behind him. The way things are now, he doesn't have any support, because nobody knows where we're going.
Re Bea August 25th, 2009 12:41 pm
A model of concision and perspicacity.
And here I thought I was stating the obvious :-)
Thanks, Jethro.
You nailed it, Bea!
Why would anyone be surprised at this? Health care is an issue that grows with age. I am nearly 60, I don't expect to see the faces and hear the voices of people in the 20s and 30s. It's up to us older people to make our concerns a prominent fixture in the minds of our legislators. We have to be vocal. Our children and grandchildren do not feel the urgency because they are largely healthy -- and will be (hopefully) for decades.
Why are the astroturfers largely old? Yes, because the older you get the easier you are to fool. But, also, it's the older citizen who is deeply worried about the state of his/her health and whether or not he/she can afford to be/get sick. We're the ones who fear financial ruin over an illness.
Don't expect youth to bail us out. We were lucky they showed up to vote. Health care reform is probably not #1 on their priority list of concerns. I'd say the tough job market is.
"Yes, because the older you get the easier you are to fool."
They are???
Most of the town hall shouters look to be in their 30s and 40s to me people who came to political awareness under the fatherly visage of Ronald Reagan.
The single payer movement is run by mostly older people in my area, who still remmeber The Great Society.
And as far as the youth bailing us out, a large part of the high cost of insurance may be that young people don't contribute to the pool. Do young people get out of social security contributions? Be it through single-payer, or mandated, but heavily regulared private insurance, they need to start contributing. I pay a couple thousand of dollars per year for public schools that I haven't used in 35 years, nor do I have any children, but I don't mind.
Actually, JH, I don't think you are correct. When I was young (25) and just starting a nonprofit business, before I could even pay my volunteers a salary, I bought them health insurance because I felt it was THE most important thing I could do for them. I've also noticed among my daughter's generation, that they seem a lot less healthy than my generation was at that age. There are probably many reasons for this, but most of them already seem to be on at least one prescription medication for rather significant health issues. They are VERY aware that they are living without a net as soon as their parents' insurance no longer covers them. For reasons I mentioned above, I hope that Obama doesn't "buy them off" with a few extra years of coverage in return for their support of this disastrous "reform."
Why would anyone be surprised at this? Health care is an issue that grows with age. I am nearly 60, I don't expect to see the faces and hear the voices of people in the 20s and 30s. It's up to us older people to make our concerns a prominent fixture in the minds of our legislators. We have to be vocal. Our children and grandchildren do not feel the urgency because they are largely healthy -- and will be (hopefully) for decades.
Why are the astroturfers largely old? Yes, because the older you get the easier you are to fool. But, also, it's the older citizen who is deeply worried about the state of his/her health and whether or not he/she can afford to be/get sick. We're the ones who fear financial ruin over an illness.
Don't expect youth to bail us out. We were lucky they showed up to vote. Health care reform is probably not #1 on their priority list of concerns. I'd say the tough job market is.
and the winner of the daily sharpest and funniest post is (drum roll please) jerry rose.
nate w the missteps were designed to happen AFTER he was
elected and we were stuck with 4 more years of bush fascist policies. not much else to add here got here late today and everyone did a outstanding job of articulating the angst
on the matter. at least democracy still rules at cd.
thanks everyone for making this such a great place.
or at least until the fascist bastards show up at our
homes and arrest us all!
Well the health care reform bill being proposed by Obama is just another cash giveaway to the corporations. Until you have a truly NOT FOR PROFIT system, the sick will always be abused by the corporations.
Dumb... the citizens of the USA are at the mercy of INSURANCE companies and the doctors who want more, more , more $$$$$. To heii with people and their illnesses. 60% of backrupcies are due to medical care. The Usa is very low on the totum pole when it comes to infant mortality and longevity. Two of the qualifiers to assess health care in a country.
70% now.
Sounds like some of 0's backers are sophisticated enough to know they've been seriously diddled.
The trouble 0 has getting support for this is not apathy; it's literacy.
Just some random thoughts here. I don't want to write off the ability of younger voters to appreciate the enormous importance of this issue. To themselves when they get older, and to their children and families when they settle down more. But during the primaries, when people got into health care discussions, my impression was that a large number of younger Obama supporters (single, college students, still supported by their parents) were attracted to Obama's health care proposals because he presented the possibility that they could be covered longer under their parents' insurance, and because they believed they would live forever, and forever, in good health. Eventually, just stepping off into some health insurance plan of their own, when Obama had solved our health care problems for us (once elected), and they magically succeeded into terrific jobs, and stepped out of their parents' coverage in the dim images of a rosy future (and where they were just as well off).
During this same primary period, I found that the best and most active health care reform proponents - and people who fell in with the various Democratic candidates -- did so for different reasons, all of which were reality-based in their perceptions of problems in our health care system. For example, the Obama supporters, of all ages, who went for his health care proposals, essentially believed we could get single payer under his presidency. The Hillary and Edwards supporters tended to show more awareness of the difficulties of dealing with the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries themselves, and hence, both of those candidates were toting essentially the same health care reform plan. Mandates for everyone.
I got the following website from another poster. There's a march on Washington for health care reform scheduled Sunday, September 13th. Including in every major city across the country, I hear.
http://www.marchforhealthcare.com/home
I am rather impressed by the organizing efforts for a healthcare reform march, this time around. I have found that I've missed others, or I've no way of getting that far in that short period of planning time. But if you read this site, it looks like they're making it pretty darn easy for people to participate in this demonstration.
The site appears to be put together by the Obama organizers (they're using the logo, that is) -- with all appearances that, if you can't find a city near you on that Sunday to be there or be square, then you shouldn't be whining on the internet about people who don't support healthcare reform strongly enough.
I hope single payer supporters will be out in full force.
See you.
"Youth is wasted on the young." -- George Bernard Shaw
I know a young man, about 30, a consulting geologist who was working here in North Carolina at a drilling site. The workers weren't supposed to do this, but they asked him if he would help them change a drill bit. But something went wrong and the old drill bit came flying out of the earth, richocheted off the top of the tower and fractured his skull. It weighed 135 pounds. That's how fast it can happen, with "it" having nothing to do with age.
I don't know his insurance situation, or that of his employer, or that of his client, but I do know that if there weren't any health care at all, his life would be ruined. It happens to so many Americans every day. Is there a statistic for the total ruinations? Should be. I haven't seen one.
It's now a month later and he's out of his coma and in rehabilitation, talks, even came home. He received a huge amount of support from friends. But he's brain-damaged with unknown consequences. Except that everything is unbelievably expensive.
Decent health care-- single payer really since that's the one that works-- yes, the experience of other countries does count-- is so important for the young people in America. We old people have some Medicare anyway, but if a young person suddenly gets a bad kidney or...well, just think about it. A car accident is very likely, far more likely than terrorist attack. The statistics bear this out. The environment, the food isn't too good. Young people need their health right to be realized more than ever.
I'd be willing to let the Republicans and other stupids privatize the post office and everything else they can think of other than police departments and prisons and health care and dare I say it, war, where the simplest solution would be to stop trying for it. Those are four areas where government can do a better job.
C'mon private sector, make us a deal. You're going to get sick, too, in fact, already are.
George C. Brown - Why shouldn't they? The way Health Care Reform has been watered down, we don't stand to gain very much unless there is a STRONG Public Option included; better yet, let's agitate for a Single Payer Plan, and see how little, if any, amount will be added to the deficit! And if you want to work more toward a balanced budget, cut military spending, stop the fear-mongering and the paranoia over terrorist attacks.
"To bring those voters back, Lake said Obama needs to draw on his own personal popularity...."
Lots of luck, pal. President Obama is no longer popular with ANY age group unless you call the top 1% of our economic class an "aged group".