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Baby boomers were activist inventors; the dissenters who picked up banners and slogans in the sixties and rammed them down the throats of anyone who dared to force undue legislation on any subject. They marched on just about everything from ‘Ban the Bomb’ to ‘Burn the Bra’.
President Obama has been compared to baby boomer activists, yet there are some not so subtle differences in the motives of the average baby boomer and Mr Obama.
Mr. Obama is one of those colorful and dramatic figures; the ones who have a consummate flair for drawing enormous public attention – until the masses are fully engaged in all out heated debate, during which they crawl out from beneath the fray unnoticed, moving on to the next burning crusade and leaving everyone else to pick up the broken glass…
In his mid twenties, Obama theatrically declared himself a servant of the Lord at the altar of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, in a complete turnaround after many years of religious scepticism. Inspired by the sermons of Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr, Obama became an active member of the church community and a valued friend of the Pastor.
Twenty years on, Mr. Obama withdrew Wright’s invitation to speak at his Presidential announcement, consigning him to the ranks of onlookers and interested guests, choosing to sideline the man who had been his mentor and inspiration for some twenty years. Jeremiah Wright put down his cursory dismissal as a result of Obama being poorly advised but more cynical opinions suggest Wright’s interest in the Palestinian question was a risky factor in candidate Obama’s efforts to secure the Jewish vote.
Did Obama take such advice on board or was Wright simply no longer useful? Baby boomers who campaigned tirelessly for Obama on his Presidential trail also seem to have been somewhat overlooked in the Grand Plan to renovate America, notably the new health structure, in which Federal intervention replaces medical decision on whether a treatment is appropriate or even economically viable.
It is not only baby boomers who stand to suffer from Pres. Obama’s controversial health system. Surely, nobody would wish their vital health decisions to be placed in the paws of government officials whose primary interest is saving money? Indeed, the reasons given for the urgency of the new health bill being fast tracked was to ‘save the economy from further disaster’.
Baby boomers are indeed activists and rebels. However, the boomer tradition of objection is combined with a passionate loyalty and a genuine desire for improvement. Obama’s propensity to put aside certain weighty issues rather too easily suggests he may be the cause of dissension and not necessarily the solution. Campaign promises and other certain undertakings have been all too casually forgotten, for a man who knelt beneath the cross at the Trinity United Church in 1988 and promised to be a good boy forever.
Is Obama an activist? Probably. Is he a rebel? He would like to be. Can he be trusted to take care of America’s baby boomers and booming senior citizens and not sell out in favor of economy? We at Boomeryearbook leave it up to you to decide…..
This Psychological Article on Do Baby Boomers Recognize an Activist and a Rebel? is part of Boomer Yearbook’s continuing series of articles exploring and in some cases poking fun at politics and current events in the hopes of shedding light on baby boomer problems. We believe knowledge is power. We’d love to hear what you think.
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Tags: baby boomers, boomer politics, Elderly Problems, Obama's Health Plan, Psychological Articles