Obama to college students: “I care about you… now that I need your vote.”
College students are perhaps the best group of voters — if you’re a deceitful politician. The reason: we are the easiest to fool. To put it more gently, we pay the least attention. Most of us spend our free time watching brain cell depleting shows on television instead of reading newspapers, watching the news or taking in the Sunday morning political shows. There may be a study that proves your I.Q. drops two points just from seeing a commercial for Teen Mom. The closest thing that most college students, other than political science majors, come to paying attention to politics is watching Jon Stewart. They may pretentiously declare in a classroom debate, “I completely disagree with what you believe in, but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it,” thinking themselves particularly profound after saying so, knowing full well that they will never have to prove it. We as college students are hurting ourselves by not paying closer attention to what is really going on with the people who make the laws that govern our lives.
Simply sprinkle some “hope” here, a little “change you can believe in” there, and Obama gets an overwhelming 66 percent of the youth vote. The formula for dominating the youth vote is simple: promise them everything, regardless of how detrimental the policies may be after implementation and count on them to not pay attention to your record come re-election time. I seriously hope the youth of America does not fall for Obama’s empty promises again in 2012.
Those of you who believe Obama cares about you are terribly mistaken. Obama is nothing but a political opportunist and now that he needs your vote for re-election, he cares about you once again. As a senator, he missed both votes to cut rates on Stafford Loans when the issue went before the Senate in 2007. As President, he has done nothing for three and a half years to deal with student loan rates. His newfound concern is just more hypocrisy from a failed president. Fifty percent of college graduates under the age of 25 are either unemployed or underemployed. The unemployment rate for youth between the ages of 20-24 has risen from 12.4 percent to 13.2 percent under the Obama Administration. A mere 54.3 percent of 18-24 year olds have jobs – a pathetic number that is the lowest rate recorded since the government began keeping those statistics.
Any rational person who looks at these facts must conclude that a new direction is desperately needed for our generation and for our nation. Unfortunately, those occupied with reality television might easily be distracted by flashy rhetoric or well-timed political stunts, such as the debates over government-subsidized birth control or student loan rate increases. This increase that the Obama administration so fervently publicized would only save students an average of less than $10 a month. This is a price any recent grad would happily pay in exchange for a competent president with economic policies that would create an economy where one could actually get a job after investing a great deal of time and money in an education.
Unfortunately for Obama, but luckily for us, we are paying attention this time around and we do feel the effects of Obama’s neglect and short-sighted, damaging policies.
This November, college students need to show that they know what is going on around them and proclaim that their President has to do more than make empty promises to win their vote.