Originally Posted by Newsweek

‘Ask Not What You Can Do For Barack Obama, Ask What Barack Obama Can Do For You’

Jonathan Darman
NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Oct 6, 2008

Dear Young Americans:

I won't tell you how special you are because you've heard it before. For the past nine months, the mainstream media have showered you with adulation. Before the Iowa caucuses, Barack Obama's campaign said you'd be his secret weapon, showing up for him like you'd never shown up for a presidential candidate before. Reporters didn't believe it; they'd seen that MTV special before, heard about the hidden youth vote and knew it never panned out.

But you proved them wrong; you did pan out. You surprised the media, and the media like nothing more than a surprise. Since then it's been a nonstop lovefest—your reputation is secure as the most idealistic and engaged group of young people since the '60s, an optimistic lot who believe that Obama really is different from all the rest. You've made his rallies into cultural events, his candidacy into a movement. You've done what no one thought was possible: you've made politics seem cool again.

So I don't have to tell you how special you are—which is good, because I don't think you're particularly special. Then again, I'm one of you, so I wouldn't. Born in 1981, I am part of a generation that is accustomed to being coddled and cheered and championed, even when we haven't done much at all. It started in the cradle when our baby-boomer parents gazed into our innocent faces and saw perfect, wondrous reflections of their perfect, wondrous selves. It continued as soccer coaches and ballet teachers turned into SAT tutors and career counselors—people whose job was to make sure the world understood just how wonderful we were. The Internet sealed our fate. Our parents and grandparents, enthralled and a little terrified by the transformative power of technology, watched as we neatly picked up our lives and moved them into HTML. We learned to expect applause for simply showing up.

And really, if we're honest, that's all you've done this year—show up. You voted (umm … you're supposed to vote). You didn't get hung up on a candidate's race (umm … you're not supposed to care about race). Your one lasting gift to political posterity this year: the text message. Greatest Generation, watch your back.

All this would be fine with me—who doesn't like praise?—if it weren't for the sneaking suspicion that for all your earnestness and self-congratulation, you haven't done enough. True, Obama may well win the White House about a month from now. If he does, after African-Americans, people our age will deserve the largest share of credit for putting him there. But despite all the enthusiasm for Obama, you, his young supporters, have done little to ensure he'll be the kind of transformative leader you long for. Your biggest failure: you've hardly asked Obama for a thing.

No doubt, this failure makes you look virtuous—you are above the politics of personal interest. But no generation of young people, except maybe the radicalized '60s youth, has ever organized as an interest group. The problem is, on his long road to the White House, Obama has met plenty of groups who do want something from him. He has encountered senior citizens who worry about what he'll do to their Social Security checks, union members who worry he'll trade away their jobs and small businessmen who worry he'll tax them into oblivion. These people are not as enamored of him as you are and have made it clear that he has to work for their vote. He's taken their challenge, making promises to each of these old interest groups that, in the White House, he'll look out for them.

Chances are, if he makes it there, he will. From the moment he takes his hand off the Bible on Inauguration Day, a President Obama will want the same thing as any first-term president: a second term. The metric by which the country will judge his worthiness for this prize is: did he get something done? So Obama, a cool rationalist at heart, will work diligently to produce a reform agenda. The easiest way to do that? Working with the Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress he is almost certain to have.

Here's where the trouble for young people starts. Those Democratic majorities don't owe it all to you. They owe just as much to the groups that have traditionally put Democrats into Congress: the old coalition of labor unions, urban affluents and minorities. Their agenda will be tailored to the short-term concerns of those interest groups, not the long-term benefit of the young. That's a shame because what's in young people's interest—a sound fiscal policy, a solution to the entitlement crisis, a robust approach to global trade and a realistic plan to address climate change—also happens, by definition, to be in the nation's long-term interest.

Get selfish before it's too late. The financial crisis is horrible news for everyone—rich and poor, young and old. But the fact that it coincides with the presidential debates—the last gasp of substance in the campaign—provides a unique opportunity for you to ask Obama to choose you. With the new fiscal reality, neither he nor John McCain should get away with promising everyone what he or she wants. In debates they will be pressed to explain their priorities. Seize this opportunity. To get the best of Obama, young people, cut out the blind devotion. Get off the Huffington Post. Stop the Facebook blasts. If you really want to be the change you've been waiting for, start holding Obama to some of his promises to our generation. In these waning days of the campaign, ask not what you can do for Barack Obama, ask what Barack Obama can do for you.