Obama Revisits Chicago, Calls For More Activism By Younger Americans (Assignment 4 - Topic 3)

[Arslan Ijaz]

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/04/25/obama-revisits-chicago-calls-activism-younger-americans/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29

[Arslan Ijaz]

It is a very nice article about an important topic. I have two comments on Obama's speech that he delivered to the students of the University of Chicago; I totally agree with his point that young talent should come into politics so that the culture of this politics can change. He is right about the corporate rule in politics and I am not surprised by looking at the fact that majority of the funding is coming from the corporate section. They definitely do it for their own sake and benefit and to control the government according to their own will. This is very sad but a bitter truth. On the other hand, I see that Obama was the president of the country for 8 years and yet he was unable to vanish this culture from the politics. I would say when he became the president and when he completed his second term, the political culture is still the same for the country. So I would take his words as a starting point for this change but it will still need decades of work to get rid of this corporate culture from the politics of the country. 

[Agustin Quintana]

Arslan, I think you correctly describe the current toxic culture of government. It seems that corporations and special interest groups poured millions of dollars into politics and have hard grip over policy. It is important that young aspire politicians can resit this and actually enact change thinking in the greater good. Green policies and environmental legislation usually gets blocked by special interest group and I just do not see how that can be fixed. Even President Obama who went into his presidency with great momentum for change was not successful in changing current political climate beyond his presidency. As we see now that the country is reverting any policy put on by the old administration, this is not good for progress but for staying the same way. 

[Martinez, Alfred S.]

The article does focus on a very interesting point: the moral for younger Americans to enter into politics is lacking. Corporations and wealth does seem to influence government and that's because the "big guys" and are used to barking orders while the "little guys" are used to complying. However, there are those that do challenge the "big guys" however, they are low in number. The way these issues can be tackled is to have more and more "little guys" become more comfortable with challenging and questioning upper management / authority. In addition to this, said individuals should also be equipped with a tool kit to go head to head with major corporations and government. My suggestion here is to have more of said advocates attend law school to learn how to get on the same playing field to better refute the current state of politics. One issue that may affect more potential students is the cost of law school, complemented with the duration of law school which is 3 years of post-grad studies. 

In order to actually enact change, young Americans need not only increased numbers in politics, but also need to be armed with a gun instead of a plastic spork when at the negotiating table.

[Wojciech Trawinski]

Political activism is something that has with this past presidential campaign become increasingly important. We have seen the masses of protestors and supporters showing their approval or distain for political figures and it has shown me that people do actually want to change the way our "democracy" is run. I think that by Trump being elected, the ones disadvantaged by the current system have been given a wake up call, they either act against it or be swallowed by it. This type of change starts at the local level, calling your senators and representatives is the best way to start. Change isn't going to happen right away, and the gears of government move slowly, but a start is always better than nothing. 

[Arslan Ijaz]

Wojciech, you brought up a valid point here. But I would say there is a difference in getting together and protesting against something that you won't want to happen or you didn't want to happen. But actually coming into the politics to fix all of these problems is very different, it needs the change of mindset. The problem with our politics is that these people are bound in their political views. If Hillary would have won then I bet we would have seen the same sort of reaction by Trump's supporters. You are right about the fact that this change will definitely start from the bottom level and then go up. Hopefully we this soon enough.

[Dobhal, Shivani]

'Cleaning up the swamp', as our current 'president' refers to the corporations and lobbyists in Washington is not a one-man job, neither is this something that could be achieved during one presidential term, or even two for that matter. Political activism on an individual basis, like Obama mentioned in his speech at the University of Chicago, is the need of the hour and although it may seem daunting, it is not something that cannot be achieved. Yes, it will take decades to separate out the money from the politics and it will take a force of people and not just democrats or republicans, but a group of people with a common mindset to bring back democracy in this country. It might never happen but that shouldn't stop us youngsters from trying as cynicism will only have negative effects in this case.