04-02-2022, 03:24 PM
It must have been in the old forum that I posted a thread on this. But I ranted on it over and over. If millennials think they have done their civic duty and fulfilled their archetypal role by voting in a presidential election, they are tragically mistaken. A president such as Biden, Obama or Bill Clinton cannot accomplish anything without a congress. If young people don't show up at midterms and vote their priorities and convictions then too, then older Republicans and conservatives fill the vaccuum by voting for the status quo and the power of the wealthy, privileged and prejudiced.
Barack Obama is perhaps the best voice on this issue. He was elected president on a wave of young millennials voting in 2008. But then they were disappointed because they didn't get everything they wanted, or they just lost interest, and so let the older Republicans win the 2010 midterm, whereupon they gerrymandered congress to favor them for a whole decade. Obama was not able to accomplish anything more; his 8-year term ended at 2 years; and even earlier, because the Democrats lost their supermajority to overcome the Republicans' fanatical filibustering because voters in Massachusetts filled Ted Kennedy's seat with a Republican in January 2010. So, because young people voted for him in Nov.2008, but then withdrew their support, Obama's term effectively only lasted 7 months. That's also because Al Franken was not confirmed as elected for several months after the 2008 election too.
Now Biden does not really have a majority in congress either, because one or two Senate Democrats are not really Democrats, and the Senate is 50-50 and the House margin is close too. Polls show the Republicans favored to win in Nov.2022, and if they do, once again young people will have withdrawn their support from the president that they elected, and he will not be able to accomplish anything, and all progress could end again for yet another decade.
Here are a couple of Obama's speeches encouraging and persuading young people to vote if they want anything done about the real issues that affect them, and that affect all of us. Democracy does not work if people don't participate. It's a good thing to remind people about.
https://youtu.be/7hZgg_KjvDQ?t=2570
Barack Obama is perhaps the best voice on this issue. He was elected president on a wave of young millennials voting in 2008. But then they were disappointed because they didn't get everything they wanted, or they just lost interest, and so let the older Republicans win the 2010 midterm, whereupon they gerrymandered congress to favor them for a whole decade. Obama was not able to accomplish anything more; his 8-year term ended at 2 years; and even earlier, because the Democrats lost their supermajority to overcome the Republicans' fanatical filibustering because voters in Massachusetts filled Ted Kennedy's seat with a Republican in January 2010. So, because young people voted for him in Nov.2008, but then withdrew their support, Obama's term effectively only lasted 7 months. That's also because Al Franken was not confirmed as elected for several months after the 2008 election too.
Now Biden does not really have a majority in congress either, because one or two Senate Democrats are not really Democrats, and the Senate is 50-50 and the House margin is close too. Polls show the Republicans favored to win in Nov.2022, and if they do, once again young people will have withdrawn their support from the president that they elected, and he will not be able to accomplish anything, and all progress could end again for yet another decade.
Here are a couple of Obama's speeches encouraging and persuading young people to vote if they want anything done about the real issues that affect them, and that affect all of us. Democracy does not work if people don't participate. It's a good thing to remind people about.
https://youtu.be/7hZgg_KjvDQ?t=2570