I may have spent the last 21 years of my life living in a state of naivety or something else is responsible for my plummeting interest in the Obama administration and what they have to say.
You can ask anyone that knows me, and they will tell you: I am a liberal. I should blindingly love President Obama, right? For a long time I did. I worked for his 2008 campaign, road tripped to the inauguration in January of 2009 and stood by him through his first term and re-election campaign. Now I am exhausted, frustrated, and disenchanted with President Obama. A fact that should scare the administration because I should be the easiest audience to keep satisfied.
What happened?
He did not represent me the way I thought he would. During the 2008 election, he came off as a dynamic political figure. As a young liberal in a bastion of conservatism, Zionsville, Ind., I hoped that Obama could be a man who could rise above 'political capital' and the chains of the 'Washington-Elite' and become a transcendent political leader.
But President Obama has become stale, and he seems to lead with little to no conviction. His premier policy achievement, The Affordable Care Act, has sputtered to start. 'Obamacare,' as it is referred to by the American people, was a watered-down bill that looked almost nothing like it did when it was first proposed. The American people, who know very little about what the policy entails, seems to be against everything that The Affordable Care Act stands for.
Most of the blame for the people's distaste for the bill has to fall on the Obama administration for failing to advertise the most important legislative accomplishment of his time in office. Pundits and rival political factions were able to rip the bill apart because the administration failed to properly publicize the policy.
President Obama has yet to use his power as the commander-in-chief to influence the legislative branch. Great presidents in the past have put their feet down and demanded that their legislative peers hear what they have to say. President Obama has been far too timid to use the influence granted to him by his office.
In the end, President Obama has missed an opportunity to be considered a great president for two reasons. He is unwilling to exert his power and is willing to compromise with rivals that have little interest in seeing him succeed.
Last week's State of the Union address was the first one I have not watched during the president's time in office. He and his administration have become stale, even to a bleeding heart liberal like me.
-Small is Senior Political Science and History Major from Zionsville. Ind.