10 Things the Obama Generation Needs to Know

By Dena Robinson, Colgate University Class of 2012 and Francesca Acocella, Wellesley College Class of 2013

Our generation helped elect our country’s first black president – no small feat. But we were reminded on July 6 at Campus Progress National Conference 2011 that that wasn’t enough. As two among the over 1000 attendees at the empowering and mobilizing training day, we heard from dozens of policy experts and lawmakers who left us with a sense of pride in our generation and two key ideas:

Knowledge and facts are power. Former President Bill Clinton told us that the American people make rational decisions based upon what they know. He reminded us to separate the hype from the facts, to discern effectively the misinformation from knowledge. In his keynote address, President Clinton hammered home the annual conference’s 2011 theme of turning truth to power, a play on the Quaker saying “speaking truth to power.” What’s the best way to turn truth into power? Personal stories, which make for more effective advocacy. What’s the best way to be an activist? Share what you know – this rings true for college students and older activists alike.

The speakers at Campus Progress reminded of the countless success stories of this kind of advocacy, from the LGBTQ rights movement to immigration reform, both putting faces on diverse, broad causes. But the rest of our generation is different. They don’t seem to find the statistics of women’s wages versus men’s and the provisions of the Affordable Care Act quite as compelling as we do.

So, we’ll make it easy for you. If knowledge and facts are power, here’s what we learned at Campus Progress that you need to know about current events:

1. Let’s Start at the Very Beginning: The first pieces of legislation introduced in the House of Representatives this session made Republican priorities painfully obvious (and it will come as no shock to anyone who’s read a newspaper since January that their top three priorities were three major blows to women): H.R. 1 would, among many other things, defund Planned Parenthood, H.R. 2 would repeal the Affordable Car Act, and H.R. 3 would disallow the purchase of private insurance plans that cover abortion.

2.  Health Care Law: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius reminded us that women have more at stake in the health care law: Before the Affordable Care Act, insurance plans were more likely to cover Viagra than the pill.

3. The Budget Debate: No one outside of DC talks about the debt ceiling. While everyone on the Hill fights about which party has the real patriots, real people talk in less wonky terms – they talk about their neighbor the police officer losing his job. Real people don’t cite the statistic that young veterans have two times the unemployment rate of everyone else; they wonder how their child who has just returned from war is going to find a job. As Van Jones pointed out, you can’t talk about being broke with a lobbyist in a Brooks Brothers suit.

4. Medicaid: Republicans have proposed a $771 billion cut to Medicaid, Gene Sperling told us. He made the point that one shouldn’t have to explain why it’s a good idea to protect health programs for poor children. We too will let that one speak for itself.

5. The Supreme Court: The Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission found that, under the First Amendment, the government cannot limit the spending of corporations in independent political broadcasts (although the amount they can donate to a particular candidate and campaign is still finite). Worse than making it considerably harder for progressive candidates running for public office, this ruling is deterring many progressives even from seeking office.

6. Journalism: Journalist Amy Goodman of Democracy Now described the process by which news reporters are embedded into a military or police unit involved in armed conflicts. It is a way to report war from the eyes of the fighters with the least possible danger. Goodman and many other critics have argued that this system dilutes and distorts reporting and is ineffective in capturing true democratic movements and unsuccessfully uses journalism as a means of holding governments accountable.

7. Agriculture: An astounding 80 percent of farmers worldwide are women! Think about it: By helping protect farmers and making sure they earn a living wage, we’re supporting women and families. It’s also not a coincidence that many of these women are mostly likely heading single-earner families. Remember: If you can, buy locally and think globally. Learn where your food is coming from and educate yourself about food politics. You are what you eat.

8. Immigration: The boom in immigration rates can be attributed to a plethora of high-skilled workers. It’s time to shatter stereotypes surrounding immigration and the system propagating it. Support a DREAMer and learn more about comprehensive immigration reform and in-state tuition legislation. Want more evidence of the benefits? When we gain comprehensive immigration reform, there will be a $1.5 trillion increase in GDP. How’s that for incentive?

9. There’s More That Unites Us Than Divides Us: Kalpen Modi shared with us one of his favorite (admittedly outdated) studies: Young progressives and young Evangelicals were asked to rank their top 5 issues. Young progressives listed jobs and the economy, access to education, poverty, climate change, and Darfur. Young Evangelicals listed – you guessed it! – exactly the same issues in exactly the same order.

10. Get Involved: All of these issues represent ways that you can get involved; it is time for us to stand up! We can all be activists and change makers, regardless of whether you’re a college student or the mother of two or both. We believed in change and our chants of “yes we can” turned to “yes we did.” But we need to do it again. It’s up to us to become historical actors and to make America the country that we will forever be proud of. Let us stand together to give and turn truth to power.