Barack Obama led a revolution in his run for President. But what has happened after the campaign?
In the 2008 Presidential Election, Senator Barack Obama did not run a Presidential campaign; he led a revolution. His words inspired a nation of young people who never cared about politics and older people who had lost faith in the system to mobilize, knock on doors, make telephone calls and scrap up money for campaign donations. It proved that if a candidate had the right message, that there could truly be a grassroots movement and thanks to those people, Obama crushed the old Clinton establishment and the Republican juggernaut of John McCain and Sarah Palin. "Yes We Can," the battle cry for Obama supporters, became "Yes We Will" and finally "Yes We Did," culminating with Obama's swearing in.
Since then, Obama's Presidency has been less than ideal. Most of his campaign promises have failed to materialized and the ones that have turn out to be emasculated veils for incremental change. Many blame Obama's laziness on the fact that he has stocked his cabinet with the people who were key in orchestrating the current recession. While indeed this may be true, there also seems to be another troubling trend about the Obama movement; the apathy of the very voters who put Obama in office.
While oil and gas companies and special interest groups have organized masses in the Tea Party to protest Obama's supposed Socialist Agenda, causing raucous cacophony at Democratic townhall meetings and in minute rallies, Obama's grassroots groups of Yes We Can-ers have stayed almost annoyingly silent, waiting on the sidelines. It is almost as if they feel that there work is done, despite the words of the President they voted for, who said numerous times it was not about winning elections.
Yet, rarely have there been reports of people rallying for a health care public option, despite polls saying that almost 65% of citizens saying they support it; almost never does one read about Obama supporters rallying for better regulation of the banks, despite overwheliming mistrust of Goldman Sachs and AIG. What Obama's supporters do not seem to realize is that the fight for true change did not end with the election of Obama. In fact, it should have been only the gunshot at the beginning of the race for true reform and change that they desire.
As a result, there is no pressure on Obama to carry out his promised initiatives. Even though they make up a minority of public opinion, the right wing astroturf outrage has made Obama move even more to the center. In turn, many leftists are in fact turning against Obama for not offering enough change, such as Congressman Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania and Former DNC Chairman, Governor Howard Dean of Vermont, who in December urged Democratic members of Congress to kill a healthcare bill without a public option. Obama's failure to fulfill promises is classic cause and effect politics: nobody pressures him to fulfill his promises, hence he does not fulfill them.
Though the media treats it so, Politics is not a spectator sport. Rather it is an interactive activity where the citizens are to demand the politicians to deliver on promises they made. Yet it seems like Obama's supporters and battle cryers have gone from "Yes We Can" and "Change We Can Believe In" to "No We Won't" and "Change we can Wait for."