If you're a Democrat, you have probably been engaged in, are currently engaged in, or will be engaged in some type of discussion involving just what the hell happened on Tuesday. One immediate cause of the electoral catastrophe: Youth turnout.
From CBS News:
The youth vote--18-to-29-year-olds--who helped catapult President Obama into office makes up an estimated 9 percent of voters this year, compared to 18 percent in 2008. About 58 percent of the youth vote favors Democratic candidates.
A column by Mark Morford of The Gate called "Letter to a Whiny Young Democrat" is the site's most-emailed and most-read article. It's attracted over 400 comments, and I have seen it being passed around on Facebook. It also gives new meaning to the word "scathing."
Morford, clearly a Democrat, starts out with this:
Oh, now you've done it.
See? You see what happens when you young liberal voters get so disgruntled and disillusioned that you drop all your party's newborn, hard-won ideas about Hope™ and Change™, without any patience, without really giving them sufficient time to mature, without understanding that hugely foreign, anti-American concept known as "the long view"? Well, now you know. This is what happens: The U.S. House of Representatives, the most insufferable gaggle of political mongrels this side of, well, the rest of Congress, reverts to GOP control like a brain tumor reverts to a more aggressive form of cancer, and everything gets bleaker and sadder and, frankly, a whole lot nastier.
And he ends like this:
But hey, whatevs, right? Screw it. Screw him. After all, the prez let you down. Conveniently "forgot" to include you in the dialogue, after a major election that you helped him win. Where were the outreach programs? The campus speaking tours? Weekly appearances on "The Daily Show"? Legal pot and gay marriage and discounts tickets to SXSW and Burning Man and Coachella? I want my goddamn political perks, and I want them now.
Hey, I understand. We're an instant gratification culture, and you're an ADHD generation. Who wants to hear that serious enviro legislation might take a decade or two to fully come to fruition? Who wants to hear about Obama passing rather amazing student loan reform? Or even financial reform? Or health care, the Iraq drawdown, saving a million jobs at GM, or all the rest of his rather astonishing achievements to date? Dude, so boring.
Here's my favorite reader response, not for political reasons but just out of sheer irony. It was at the top of the pile a few minutes ago but has now sadly been pushed lower by more verbose replies. From mjbeernut:
"yawn..."