Does personal history or age play a role in a person's level of support for Obama?

[county worker]

If you were politically aware before Reagan would you tend to be less of an Obama supporter?

I was born in 1946. For most of the first half of my life we moved in a more progressive direction politically and socially.

When I entered the workforce in 1964 after high school most workers had what we would call today "good benefits." Most of our dads had a good pension plan and retired with a pension plus social security. They had company paid health care even into retirement.

Human and civil rights for minorities and women improved during that time. Just about every Supreme Court decision then protected our rights as citizens.

I could go on but what I am getting at is that I lived in a time when life was better for the working class then it is now.

What "professional liberals" are asking for is not something new but rather a return of what once was. Now if you didn't live when it was better for the working class you might not understand that.

You might think that "professional liberals" are over reaching or are asking for too much.

I think that because so many are willing to accept far less and be satisfied with it.

[dbonds]

1. You may have a point.

So those that didn't see what things were like before think they are impossible to achieve.

[LiberalLoner]

2. I think you are on to something there. Born in '61 myself. K&R n/t

[TwilightGardener]

3. I was a kid during the Carter and Reagan years. I watched moms

go back to work, kids become latchkey, and college degrees became necessary to be middle class. I am sure my expectations of a President are different because of the world I grew up in.

[slipslidingaway]

4. knr ...

"What "professional liberals" are asking for is not something new but rather a return of what once was. Now if you didn't live when it was better for the working class you might not understand that."

:thumbsup:

[Autumn]

5. Your last sentence describes it perfectly

and I agree completely. K/R

[xchrom]

6. why not? let's just say i'm a gentleman of a certain age.

& please note -- for me -- 'gentleman' is used generously.

[trayfoot]

Was born in '49...

and you are absolutely right on with your comments!

[gkhouston]

7. That's an interesting conjecture.

Perhaps you should do a poll about this. My perception is that a lot of the people who are dissatisfied with Obama feel that he is not upholding traditional Democratic ideals and positions. Maybe that sort of thing is more important to older Dems, who have some recollection of pre-Reagan years.

[xiamiam]

8. end the wars, address foreclosures, demand accountability for wall street & war profiteers

he ran on that..he hasn't done it..thats why i supported him..thats the candidate i support whomever that may be

[scheming daemons]

9. I was born in '67.... my support of Obama is because of two things

1. I saw what the GOP became in the 90s with the rise of talk radio and I realize they must be opposed at all costs and at all times.

2. I saw Bill Clinton succesfully negotiate with a right wing congress, even though the far left howled about it. Bubba understood that the only way to get anything done in such an environment was to move to the center...and Obama understands that as well.

[county worker]

11. Funny you prove my guess is right on.

Bubba hurt the poor with welfare reform an the working class with NAFTA. You are happy with that.

I guess it comes down to principals over winning. We have given so much to the right that the center looks left!

[eridani]

19. Great. Yet another cheerleader for the fucking over of the middle class

"Success" = DOMA, welfare "reform," the telecommunications act, the repeal of Glass-Steagall? Why in fucking hell would any sane person want to get any of these things done? The disaster that Clinton helped to create, Obama is perpetuating? I fucking well don't WANT to get any of those things done.

[Uben]

10. In '64 the highest tax rate was 76% .....

....more than twice what they are now! Therein lies the problem. The rich bought themselves a 50%+ decrease since then.

[tabbycat31]

12. I was born in 1980

I don't know what it was like when times were good for the working class. My parents are both higher paid government employees, but still considered below average income for the area where I was raised (why I am no longer living there now).

I am an Obama supporter and will vote for him again but I think he needs to make some changes. He needs to fire his entire economic team and grow a spine and learn to fight with the tea party instead of working with them.

[lumpy]

13. I was born in 1928. I rmember the good and the bad times.

It was a overwhelming struggle for families before FDR's term. The changes for good was beginning at that time inspite of opposition by the economic powers to the idea of social betterment. The trend downward escalated during the Reagan administration by those same economic powers. Deregulation and anti-unionism was the goal of those same economic powers. Now the goals of those economic powers have come to near fruition.
I believe that people became complacent in keeping an interest in political trends as their economic lives improved. Inundated with consumerism, available goods and technical advances,distracting forms of entertainment etc.created loss of interest in important issues. The loss of public interest in our economic future and leadership caused a problem. Before social change public interest in politics was very high and discussion was similar to what we are experiencing now, an awakened interest in how leadership affects our lives.
It is understandable why people want to 'return' to better times and I am not saying that interest flagged with all the public, including myself. A vast number of people are ignorant about government and that has to be changed. It will be an overwhelming challenge to defeat those forces in our leadership whose goal is to return to unfettered economics and care less about the welfare of this country.
Change to better times is going to be a struggle and it won't happen overnight. The challenge facing Democrats is vast. Patience and understanding is needed and positive discussion in paramount.

[county worker]

14. I want to tell you something that I think is very telling.

We had social studies class in high school in 1964 and the text book was titled "The Common Good."

Our entire class was taken up by what "political liberals" talk about today.

I remember one chapter in particular was "the invisible poor." Even though we lived in a middle class neighborhood our schools taught us about those who were worse off than we were.

I don't think they teach that anymore.

Another thing is that my brother went to high school with Martin Sheen and I went to school with his brother Joe. We caddied at the Dayton County Club together and my cousin married his brother. He is liberal because of the same upbringing I had.

[saras]

18. I got the same social studies in 1968 in a West Coast small town

The one lesson I recall taking away from it is that for people of differing values to work together requires honesty. It doesn't require respect - that can be earned in time. It doesn't take agreement - if that existed, you wouldn't have different values. It doesn't require shared goals - you can agree that a particular action serves multiple, contradictory goals.

But you can't be bullshitting yourself, let alone anybody else, and expect a collective project to succeed. We don't have that on either side.

[Blue_In_AK]

15. I think you're right.

I was born in 1946, also, and I feel just as you do. President Obama is not a traditional Democrat.

[uponit7771]

16. I don't remember RayGun, I do FEEL the effects of assholes primarying Carter and "staying home"....

...to make a point.

Simpleton bastards then and simpleton bastards now, move congress to the left you don't have to worry about the president.

[Fumesucker]

20. So you're saying those of us who were politically aware then are simpleton bastards?

And you are feeding right into that meme of the left is the cause of all our problems.

If only all Democrats were moderate centrists we would live in a paradise because the Republicans would have no reason to be extreme then.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. "Young wolves, show us your teeth." - John Steinbeck

I was born in 1944 and my generation became fed up with stultifying "American Dream" conformity and obvious inequality and utter hypocrisy of America as exemplified by the "keeping up with the Joneses" rat race mentality that existed. We saw through the fine words of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and looked at the real United States of racism and exploitation. We realized that we weren't a Beacon of Democracy or a Peace Loving nation but a predator nation controlled by the greedy and amoral who justified every action with platitudes and rationalizations.

Some of us resisted during the '60s and '70s. We challenged the lies of our history and the emptiness of our "ideals" that applied only to those who could afford them. Settling for less wasn't an option. There were some victories, civil rights, women's rights, an end to a disastrous war. But, those victories have been watered down. We still have the biggest killing machine the world has ever known and we're still using it, poverty is still inescapable for much of our population, people still die without health care, women and minorities are still second rate citizens, the environment is still dying.

In the end we were co-opted, bought out, or sold out.

It is disheartening to see most of the younger generations resign themselves to their fate and quietly accept that a corrupt system is the best to be hoped for and going along with it is the only option.

[Raine]

21. You might be right. I'm a few years younger that you but I'm a baby boomer

and I remember those times for sure and don't want to settle for less.