Mixed feelings about current presidential administration present one year later
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Photo courtesy of MCTCampus.com A year after the election, some people and organizations are seeking more action from the president.
It's been just more than a year since the unprecedented 2008 election that produced the nation's first Black president, a wealth of policy change promises and some of the greatest youth political involvement in the nation's history.
Obama's campaign centered on change — health care reform, new policies in Iraq and economic refocusing. One year later, do the people who voted him into office think he's delivered on his promises?
A week ago, a conference call took place among a number of political youth organizations, including Rock the Vote, Campus Progress and the National Youth Advocacy Coalition. These organizations sought the opinions of young people from across the country through online surveys and ground interviews and weighed in on what they thought most people saw or were still looking for.
Overall, the results showed mixed reactions — people acknowledge that certain things have been done well, but there is still a lot of work to be done.
The results, which were released in the form of Twitter updates, were included in a press release issued Nov. 3. Opinions were sought on several key issues, including health care ("Must pass hcr w/ publicoption, subsidies, no discrim, no insurance in name only ywic 1yrlater") immigration ("Immigration reform undone, need pathway to citizenship & DREAM Act, civil rights struggle of our time 1yrlater"), and the current state of the economy ("Youth unemployment nearly 2x nat'l avg, stimulus was start but need jobs bill for young 1yrlater").
The information was published to coincide with the one year anniversary of Obama's election. This was done for two reasons — to show opinions on his progress to date and to showcase the previously unheard youth involvement in politics.
"I think that although (Obama) has not changed the world yet, he has certainly taken the steps in the right direction, even if they have been only a few since he took office less than 10 months ago," senior Evan Dempster said. "We've only seen the tip of the iceberg as far as making a difference for the majority of Americans."
Young people aren't the only ones remaining hopeful.
"People tend to have ridiculously high expectations for what a new president can accomplish in such a short time frame," English professor Michael Stricklandsaid. "He can't just come in and wave a magic wand and fix all these complex problems. Our political process can be slow and cumbersome. It is a lot easier to declare a war or invade a country than it is to turn around a decade of financial irresponsibility."
Updated November 10, 2009
