With delightful good humor, professor Christopher Hammons describes the "5 Signs Millennials Should Break Up with Obama and Move On."
“Young love is fickle,” despite the passion that accompanies it. Such is the case of the romance between the president and millennials.
While the 2008 election was like the rush of hormones and giddiness that accompanies new romance, the 2012 election was more like that phase of a relationship where one person says to the other, "It's not that I don't love you, it's just that I'm not IN love with you."
Now nearly four years later, "the romance is over and the break-up inevitable."
The Thrill is Gone
Now that you have gotten used to him, the novelty has worn off. It's okay. Like a lot of young romances, it turns out this guy wasn't all that different after all. He's just another smooth-talker, like all the rest. All style and no substance. You wonder what you saw in him in the first place.
He Just Doesn't Understand You
It was fun to fantasize about a future together, but once you started making plans for a life together you discovered you didn't really have that much in common. It was disappointing and confusing. You tried to make the best of it, but the honeymoon is over. You didn't change. He did. It's time for a little space.
He Was Cheap
No one likes a cheap date. Candidate Obama promised you romantic, springtime trips to Paris, Spain in the summer, and New England in the fall. All for free.
You learned the hard way that nothing in life is free. Obamacare was designed to stick the cost of healthcare to healthy young people like you in order to subsidize the costs for older, less healthy people. You learned about things like "monthly premiums" and "deductibles." He lied about letting you keep your existing insurance. In short, Obama invited you to a fancy dinner and then asked you to split the check. You feel used.
He Was a Player
The colossal failure of the healthcare.gov website unnerved you, and undid much of his status as a tech wizard. Granted, it's not like he was the one programming the website, but it happened on his watch under the signature program that bears his name. This is something that should have happened to an old, uncool guy, not Obama.
Maybe Obama's much vaunted fascination with his Blackberry during the 2008 campaign, which you found so endearing, was not an indication of his hipness after all. Maybe he just didn't know how to use an iPhone.
You Grew Apart
You were only 18 in 2008, but are just a few years from hitting 30 now. Many of your friends are unemployed and in debt. The economy has not recovered much. You didn't get a bunch of stuff for free. And, frankly, you're a little ticked off.
These were the best years of your life. Right now you'd trade all that hope and change for a job and a future. Watching the president eat snow cones in Hawaii, play endless rounds of golf, and speak platitudes about "stopping the rise of the oceans" was endearing at first. Now it just makes you mad.
Don't kick yourself too hard. Part of life is making mistakes and learning from them. Obama was an attractive candidate. And you were young.
Read the full post at thefederalist.com