As important as the youth demographic was in electing Barack Obama to the White House, it seems young Americans have lost faith in the president’s political motives.
According to a new ScoopDaily/Zogby poll, 30% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 believe that President Obama is “abandoning many of the progressive causes he championed during his campaign.” In addition, only 44% of 18- to 24-year-olds firmly believe he is still “working as hard as he can to fulfill” those same progressive causes.
Is President Obama abandoning liberal principles he heralded during the campaign? Compared to a slimmer averaged 20% across the older demographics, 18 to 24 year-olds say yes.
Overall, only slightly more than half (54%) of Americans view Obama as sticking to his campaign goals.
Minorities seem to give the first black president the benefit of the doubt more often. African-American (74%), Asian (60%) and Jewish (64%) citizens all believe in Obama’s work toward progressive causes significantly more than white or Christian Americans. Hispanics (53%) are the only minority who isn’t as confident.
Ideological inclinations provide little surprise, as liberals backed Obama and conservatives showed less faith. Conservatives and moderates agreed at the same rate (23%) about abandonment, but twice as many conservatives answered neither yes nor no, perhaps because a ‘yes’ would nullify their dislike for his policies while ‘no’ would give him credit for accomplishing the change he promised.
“I think that growing disillusionment with Obama is not a surprise. In the first year of his presidency, he does not have a winning record toward meeting the promises he’s made,” responded Mary Jane O’Malley, a 2009 graduate of the University of Denver and a Tulsa Corps Teach for America volunteer.
However, O’Malley notes that the that notion of abandonment is likely “premature.”
Gillian Evans, a sophomore Georgetown University, is among the most troubled about Obama’s presidency on the anniversary of his election.
“Not that the alternative candidate provided much to chose from, and I don’t blame young Americans for overwhelmingly supporting Obama,” she concedes.
“But I do think that their expectations were astronomical and unfounded,” Evans says, “and most Americans who were swept up in Obama fever believed that all Americans were behind Obama.”
Adelaide Elm Kimball, a board member of Vote Smart, the nonpartisan electoral outreach organization, cited “the post-election hard realities of the national economy” as deeply entrenched problems that will not be resolved overnight.
“The disservice that…both major parties do the public is lead them to expect that solutions can be quickly found for our enormous problems,” continued Kimball, “Young people are no different than the rest of us in that respect.”
Matt Bai, a senior writer for The New York Times Magazine who has examined President Obama as well as former President Clinton’s centrist political persona and triangulation, warns young Americans that “Centrists always disappoint, and Obama is a centrist.”
Still, he adds, “Obama as a sellout seems like a pretty tough case to make, given the record, but younger voters have less context and more fervor.”
Popularity: 4% [?]
Would you like to join in the discussion? Comments
It appears as if we elected another Clinton at whose doorstep we can lay the repeal of the Glass-Steagal act, which, had it remained in place, would have prevented the banking crisis and subsequent depression. To make matters worse, Obama has the same people advising him.
I hope Obama will come to understand that the problems the country faces will not yield to centrist solutions. He is going to have to go the FDR route and come up with a new deal that benefits everyone, not simply the richest one percent that he and Clinton democrats perceive to be the center.
November 5, 2009 at 3:24 amIt seems that anyone who has any experience with the world outside of academia would realize there are people who know how to create wealth, for themselves and others, and those that act to support those who know how to create wealth, the typical employee. The government spends the money it takes from those who have created the wealth, it does not create any wealth, only recycles the money it has collected to provide protection, services and infrastructure to the general population. When the wealthy who know how to CREATE additional wealth have more, it benefits the entire population, when they don’t, jobs are lost and the country as a whole suffers. Additional government programs adding government jobs only adds to the greater suffering by taking more from those that have, which in turn reduces their ability to innovate and create new private sector employment. The current situation and route it seems Obama is taking the country seems to me that it will accelerate a downward economic spiral.
November 6, 2009 at 11:29 amHave something to add?