Similar to how children brought up in dys-fundamentalist churches that push hyped-up healing ceremonies based more on emotion than Scripture fall away from the church, it seems Obama Youth Group constituents have also become disenchanted with America’s political man-god.For those who grew up spending more time on the soccer field than Sunday service, Mr. Obama’s soaring speeches, miracle-working potential and contagious group enthusiasm made Barack Obama 2008 the closest thing to a Holy Ghost tent revival that anyone under 25 years of age had ever seen.
Young college students, many of whom were relatively un-churched, responded by volunteering to tirelessly participate in what some described as the “most exciting period of [their] life.” One female student shared that she and other faithful followers of the Obama 2008 Machine “did everything…went canvassing…phone banking.” In other words, young converts spent a lot of time evangelizing.
College-aged “faith without works” Obama disciples “washed feet” with youthful exuberance and proved their undying devotion by self-sacrificially cleaning campaign offices and dropping off and picking up the dry cleaning of campaign bosses. In churchspeak, what went on would be equivalent to exploitative clergy taking advantage of wide-eyed new Christians with servants’ hearts, only in this case “What Would Jesus Do” WWJD bracelets were substituted with WWOD. The reason?
According to less-than-enthusiastic President Obama devotee Emma Guerrero, “We all believed and wanted him to get elected.”
Unfortunately, after being baptized in the “Yes we can” tank, those who drank the Kool-Aid have emerged somewhat disillusioned and unwilling to commit with the same level of zeal they displayed circa 2008. Now that the revival meeting has ended, the Greek columns have been packed away, and the economic crutches that Barack Obama promised would be cast aside are actually needed more than ever, the youthful Obama-ites like Ms. Guerrero find themselves crawling around on all fours, unable to find job, and as a result lack the “time or spirit to work for Mr. Obama.”
Faith in flesh and blood is funny like that, and Barack Obama proves it. After passing the plate on Election Day, the “Hope and Change” Crusade collapsed the folding chairs, pulled up the tent pegs and left town to venture forth and wreak havoc on the faithful from a larger platform of power. Like a charlatan preacher capable of mesmerizing the flock, the President encouraged blind faith and exploited an idealistic desire for “change” in naïve congregants, and did so to provide a vehicle to win historically red states like North Carolina and Indiana. Afterwards, he failed to deliver the promised goods.
Disappointed student Ms. Guerrero says she doesn’t “blame Mr. Obama for the 13.4 percent unemployment rate gripping the state of Nevada.” That sort of brainwashed mentality smacks of excusing a snake oil swindler at a faith-healing crusade and blaming the blind, deaf and crippled for leaving in the same condition they came in because of their lack of faith. Emma Guerrero lamented that “I don’t think I could do it anymore.
That campaign was an amazing experience. But I don’t think I’m in the same mind-set anymore. He hasn’t really addressed the young people, and we helped him to get elected.” Such sentiments indicates that some of the youth who supported Barack Obama are like disillusioned attendees of a dysfunctional congregation who, after contributing everything to help build a mega-church, are forced to sit in the overflow room.
Some of the faithful have fallen away to such a degree that one Brigham Young University-Idaho student confessed: “I don’t know if I’ll support him next year.” A conversion of that magnitude would be like a Mormon switching allegiance from Joseph Smith to Bahá’u’lláh.
The state affected most by Obama’s economic prowess, Nevada, has ex-“gung-ho” supporters like Jolie Glaser, who identifies herself this go-round as less passionate and a more “thoughtful supporter.” It seems Jolie decided to keep the emergency exit at the back of the house of worship in plain sight, and to do a lot more listening and a lot less dancing in the aisle.
Brown University alumni Sandra Allen admitted to not being all that optimistic anymore. Sounding jaded, cynical and relatively disinterested in the political process, when asked if she’d be involved in similar get-out-the-vote/home-based work for Mr. Obama in 2012, she responded “Not now. And I will not be streaking across the main green of any campus with hundreds of thrilled people were he to be re-elected next year.” It’s doubtful Ms. Allen will be found running around the perimeter of INVESCO field waving a tearstained hankie accompanied by Oprah.
Based on her attitude, it’s also unlikely Sandra will be contributing to the Barack Obama Rebuilding What I Destroyed Reelection Fund. It is also doubtful she willingly sit through another four years of the President’s hollow, meaningless sermons promising that the economic lame and blind will walk and see, only to watch the nation stumbling around in the dark unable to establish even the most tentative fiscal footing.
Still, even with all the regret there is still a measure of guilt associated with criticizing someone viewed as politically anointed as the messianic Barack Obama. Those refusing to blaspheme are the people who, although unwilling to “jump back into the trenches,” say they are “still inclined to vote for him.” If they decide not to remain true to the faith and leave the flock permanently, according to Jim Messina, Barack Obama’s campaign manager, it’s not a problem because there is fresh blood out there. Mr. Messina is counting on a brand new group of converts. Jim says there are “eight million voters aged 18 to 21 registered since the last election, most of whom [are] Democrats.”
Messina is self-assured and believes that “Their brothers and sisters started it, and they are going to finish it.” If a second wave of college-age students manage to successfully keep Barack Obama in the White House for a second term, Jim Messina could very well be considered the first official Barack Obama Ministry prophet for accurately predicting the looming apocalypse brought to America by those who, when it’s too late, will end up suffering the most in the future.
