Warning: Politics
So, I read a friend of mine, who is the sort of Republican that likes to claim his views are "centrist" but still supports Bush, writing a ramble about how politically naive young people are today that they trust Barack Obama because he's actually just a politician who won't represent their interests and will let them down.
I'm tired of this. I'm tired of being called politically naive.
I, and everyone my age (let's say we're the millenials, for you generation-name-loving postwar babies out there) know very well that Obama is a politician. In fact, he's a damned good politician (not just in the vote-getting but also in the bill-passing) which is a big chunk of the reason I supported him instead of Hillary Clinton in the Washington caucuses: Obama has succeeded many times in passing needed, unpopular legislation (like police videotaping in Illinois or ethics reform in the Senate). You can't do that without being a damned good politician.
If I thought that someone running for high office was "refreshingly not like a politician," I would completely give them my respect and moral support and vote for the candidate who seemed like the best politician that vaguely aligned with my interests. Because someone who isn't a good politician, whatever I might think of them personally, however much we might agree on the issues: simply isn't going to promote my interests effectively.
Note that Sarah Palin wasn't popular among young people.
Millenials, as a group, are hip to this. They know how politics work, probably better than any generation before them. I have a friend who works for the Obama campaign. He strongly disagrees with Obama about many things, and was a passionate advocate against the FISA legislation that Obama voted for. But after that fight was over, he went back to work, because he understands that dropping out of the process is not the way to get your voice heard.
That's not naivety. That's realpolitik.
It's always the older generation that I hear complaining about politician's lack of purity. Which makes sense, really. The baby boomers and their kids seem totally disinterested in their political responsibilities as citizens of a Democracy. They've consistently voted for the president who seems more "muscular;" spent like drunken sailors on foreign wars and interventions, largely for the entertainment value of watching us kill foreigners on their televisions; totally neglected the infrastructure that their parents and grandparents carefully laid down for their success; ruined the economy by day-trading and real-estate speculation; and in general on the political stage behaved with the patience, maturity, and good sense that you would expect from a four year old child. They bought that "deficits don't matter," thought Reagan was a good president, and lined right up to send us into Iraq.
That's where insisting on the moral purity of our politicians got us, as a nation. If there were any justice in the world anyone over forty five, right now, would lose the right to vote. You are clearly irresponsible and not capable of handling the reigns of government. But there isn't, and we're going to stay stuck cleaning up your messes for the rest of our lives, while you hang onto your selfish "late-in-life conservatism," actually spendthriftism, and do as much damage to our political process as you can before you slough off.
As a millenial, I'm the first generation of Americans since the Great Depression won't to have a party on our kids' dollar. We won't be better off than our parents. Most of us will not own our own houses. We're going to be faced with sky-high unemployment. We have ahead of us a life of underemployment, bone-breaking work, and international shame because of all the shit your political naivete -- which continues to this day -- got us into.
You have provided America with the single most inept democratically elected government since Athens invaded Sicily. At least, please, for yourselves and your dignity, show a healthy sense of shame for once in your lives and shut the fuck up.
Sincerely--
--Me
I'm tired of this. I'm tired of being called politically naive.
I, and everyone my age (let's say we're the millenials, for you generation-name-loving postwar babies out there) know very well that Obama is a politician. In fact, he's a damned good politician (not just in the vote-getting but also in the bill-passing) which is a big chunk of the reason I supported him instead of Hillary Clinton in the Washington caucuses: Obama has succeeded many times in passing needed, unpopular legislation (like police videotaping in Illinois or ethics reform in the Senate). You can't do that without being a damned good politician.
If I thought that someone running for high office was "refreshingly not like a politician," I would completely give them my respect and moral support and vote for the candidate who seemed like the best politician that vaguely aligned with my interests. Because someone who isn't a good politician, whatever I might think of them personally, however much we might agree on the issues: simply isn't going to promote my interests effectively.
Note that Sarah Palin wasn't popular among young people.
Millenials, as a group, are hip to this. They know how politics work, probably better than any generation before them. I have a friend who works for the Obama campaign. He strongly disagrees with Obama about many things, and was a passionate advocate against the FISA legislation that Obama voted for. But after that fight was over, he went back to work, because he understands that dropping out of the process is not the way to get your voice heard.
That's not naivety. That's realpolitik.
It's always the older generation that I hear complaining about politician's lack of purity. Which makes sense, really. The baby boomers and their kids seem totally disinterested in their political responsibilities as citizens of a Democracy. They've consistently voted for the president who seems more "muscular;" spent like drunken sailors on foreign wars and interventions, largely for the entertainment value of watching us kill foreigners on their televisions; totally neglected the infrastructure that their parents and grandparents carefully laid down for their success; ruined the economy by day-trading and real-estate speculation; and in general on the political stage behaved with the patience, maturity, and good sense that you would expect from a four year old child. They bought that "deficits don't matter," thought Reagan was a good president, and lined right up to send us into Iraq.
That's where insisting on the moral purity of our politicians got us, as a nation. If there were any justice in the world anyone over forty five, right now, would lose the right to vote. You are clearly irresponsible and not capable of handling the reigns of government. But there isn't, and we're going to stay stuck cleaning up your messes for the rest of our lives, while you hang onto your selfish "late-in-life conservatism," actually spendthriftism, and do as much damage to our political process as you can before you slough off.
As a millenial, I'm the first generation of Americans since the Great Depression won't to have a party on our kids' dollar. We won't be better off than our parents. Most of us will not own our own houses. We're going to be faced with sky-high unemployment. We have ahead of us a life of underemployment, bone-breaking work, and international shame because of all the shit your political naivete -- which continues to this day -- got us into.
You have provided America with the single most inept democratically elected government since Athens invaded Sicily. At least, please, for yourselves and your dignity, show a healthy sense of shame for once in your lives and shut the fuck up.
Sincerely--
--Me