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 Colorado 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.”
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