[StBernard] Brown University 1:This kid doesn't get it

[Westley Annis]

Mike Johnson '11: The lost power of Barack Obama

Published: Friday, September 18, 2009

Updated: Friday, September 18, 2009

Look out!  Obama is everywhere. He stares at us from our computer screens
every time we browse a news Web site. His name rings out from our
televisions whenever we turn them on. The front corner of the Ratty is
inundated with countless news reports of him and his shorts-wearing wife.
Yet his poll numbers slip, his critics redouble their efforts and his
ambitious agenda seems bogged down in the mire of Washington D.C.
bureaucracy.

Pundits everywhere declare "the honeymoon is over," and I begin to wonder
where the magic went.

It went on summer vacation. It's no secret that, statistically speaking, the
biggest supporters of President Barack Obama in last year's election were
we, the voters aged 18-25, some of us voting in our first election and
others making up for previous elections. Young voters were electrified by
the young senator from Illinois, and saw in him a changing of the guard, a
man who would represent the generational shift from Baby Boomer to
Generation X. 

All things considered, we weren't wrong about him.  In his first months in
office, he reversed some of the more - let's call them "conservative," for
lack of a better word - policies of his predecessor, and has made a genuine
effort to be bipartisan with his economic and health care reforms.

In spite of all this, however, the love is gone. No more youth activists
march in the street; no more useless yet inspiring Facebook groups exist.
Instead of powering the president to a smoother, more elegant reform
process, the youth of this nation pat themselves on the back, sink back into
the very apathy of which we're accused and watch Obama go down with the
ship.  After November, we all said "Mission Accomplished," not realizing the
irony. 

After months of debate in the House and Senate and across the country, the
President appears to have moved toward the center. The simple fact that
there are 535 people in Congress precludes extremism. Obama seems to have
realized that there is more to health care reform than just what the far
left wants. Despite the Joe Wilsons of the world, the right does bring
something to the table.

Unfortunately, the President carries the burden of an overwhelming majority
in both houses of Congress - it seems there can indeed be too much of a good
thing. Those in Congress farther to the left than our President keep
chomping at the bit to unleash their crazy onto the American people, and it
seems he is withering under the constant pressure to get something passed.

The evaporating youth movement has left a vacuum our elders have gleefully
filled, consistently spitting out their dated and stale ideas. Until the
youth of the nation, the ones who will benefit the most from health care
reform, come out and pledge their support, the president can turn only to
those who are closest at hand, the ultra-left, who want to use their
Congressional muscle to strong-arm the reform debate.

If that happens, reform is doomed.  No one can govern alone in our system -
that's the genius of it. For health care, especially, there is no duality of
Democrat vs. Republican - there's a spectrum of support and criticism,
ranging from the Blue Dogs to Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter. It's
undeniable that we need health care reform.  Too many people are sick with
no way to get help, and it's our responsibility as a country to help them.

The far left cannot push through their expensive, overwhelming plan; they
simply don't have enough votes, no matter what they claim. So if Obama is
pressured into following his leftist cronies, we can kiss the dream of
universal coverage goodbye for another decade, or longer. That decade will
be our decade, and it's our choice whether or not we want to be insured for
it.

So it's time we broke out of our funk and started getting active again. With
the laziness and relaxation of the summer fading away for the next nine
months or so, it's time to focus our energy on being productive. Reform
doesn't happen from the top down, and when we agreed to vote for the man who
realized that, we implicitly promised we'd be there to help. We're the ones
who have the most to gain from health care reform, and conversely, the most
to lose from its defeat. In a few short years, this will be our nation.
It's time we take hold of our future, and ensure it's one in which we want
to live.



Mike Johnson '11 was unanimously elected president of the Brown Apathetics.
He can be reached at michael_johnson(at)brown.edu.