This is a guest post by Diane Lucas. Diane is an attorney in New York and the co-founder of ElevenSixTwelve.
Almost four years ago, President Barack Obama achieved something monumental: he inspired people who had never voted to vote in droves. He motivated college students across the country to organize rallies and voting drives in support of his campaign. And he encouraged millions across the nation – across racial lines – with his message of hope and change.
President Obama had an oft-cited rock star effect. Much of America and the international community were enamored by him. We stood in awe of the historical significance of his successful campaign. We watched what seemed like the impossible be realized: an African-American man was elected president of a country built on slavery. Of course, many recognized that he was so much more than the first black president. He was a brilliant orator, intelligent, understanding, and charismatic. He was also a former community organizer, an unusual professional background for a presidential candidate. He was a leader who seemed to understand the needs of the American people.
And, President Obama did much of what he promised. The president ended the war in Iraq, bringing the troops home in time for the holidays; created jobs to start the process of repairing a severely broken economy; and fought to establish an affordable health care system. He has also done what many wished that the president who promoted hope and change would do. He made discussions of race a mainstream and presidential issue, supported Planned Parenthood when politicians were seeking to deny access to care for millions of women, and acknowledged his support of same-sex marriage.
So why are many of President Obama’s previous supporters apathetic to the 2012 elections?
From an informal poll of some friends, family and colleagues, all of whom previously voted for President Obama, it was clear that although they acknowledged the accomplishments that President Obama has made, they did not feel the excitement of the 2008 elections. This could be the result of the worn novelty of the first African-American president. Or perhaps it’s a result of the negative and many times unfounded attacks of his presidency. Or maybe it is that people expected President Obama to create a miracle in his first term, failing to acknowledge that he has to work within the bounds of congressional and judicial checks of power, and that he inherited a failed economy.
As an answer to this apathy, three of my friends and I started an organization called, ElevenSixTwelve. Named for the date of the upcoming presidential election, ElevenSixTwelve is working to create a movement to promote the re-election of President Obama with a similar energy and zeal as the 2008 presidential election. Our organization uses fashion to inspire and motivate voters to support the president, through the creation of pro-Obama t-shirts available on our website, www.ElevenSixTwelve.com.
Our ‘Together, We Can’ t-shirts – inspired by President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign slogan – encourage and remind voters that the President cannot be re-elected without the support of all of us. Our shirts demonstrate that President Obama supporters can be fashionable, while advocating for the re-election of President Obama in 2012.
The ultimate goal is for ElevenSixTwelve to mobilize a fan base of people, who wear the t-shirts with pride, tell their friends, family and colleagues why they will vote for President Obama, and most importantly, encourage others to vote on November 6, 2012. ElevenSixTwelve also keeps supporters informed on the important movements in the President’s campaign via Twitter, Facebook, and a blog on our website that highlights daily campaign updates, accomplishments of the President, and includes ways for supports to get involved.
ElevenSixTwelve also financially supports the campaign by donating 100% of its net proceeds from the sales of the t-shirts to Obama For America.
With women’s rights, marriage equality, the economy, our education system, and a myriad of other issues at stake, this election is of even more importance. The co-founders of the site and I hope ElevenSixTwelve can be a game changer in the upcoming presidential election, and help re-elect President Obama on November 6, 2012. President Obama needs our support more than ever – will you join the movement?
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ElevenSixTwelve was founded by Diane Lucas, Maria Lloyd, Sherea Lloyd and Rochelle Sinclair. If you are interested in supporting the movement, you can visit the website at www.ElevenSixTwelve.com, follow us on Twitter @ElevenSixTwelve, as well as like us on
So, this is kind of insulting – the only reasons a progressive might be lukewarm about Obama are being bored of black presidents, being suckers for Republican propaganda, or being ignorant of political realities?
Right. It couldn’t be because we’d like to see a president seriously address prosecutions for Wall Street fraud, widespread government surveillance, war crimes, indefinite detention of American citizens, the PATRIOT Act, the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison (Obama tried to move it, not close it), drone assassinations, climate change and the significant reduction of fossil fuel consumption, the military industrial-complex, the War on Drugs, mass incarceration, “free” trade agreements, restoring the Glass-Steagall Act, breaking up too-big-to-fail banks, single-payer healthcare, or capital punishment.
Stella, thanks for typing all that – civil rights is top on my list of Obama lied and now I don’t know if people died.
THANK YOU. This post cracked me up with how utterly clueless and full of fail it was.
Or it could be because he’s further expanded US imperialist strategy with drone wars, and added to that by passing that infamous law that the US government can detain anyone anywhere in the world for being suspected of terrorist activity?
Nah, everyone’s just racist, clearly.
(That said, if you’re supporting Romney because you’re disappointed with Obama for any of the above reasons, even the ones I outlined, you’re mind-bogglingly ignorant and ridiculously devoid of any kind of perspective.)
Well, and this isn’t even a statement about people supporting Romney, it’s about people not being as enthusiastic about Obama as they were in 2008.
Speaking for myself, my feelings range from disappointed to appalled at many of the things Obama has done or not done. “Excited” is nowhere in there, a definite change from 2008. I’m still voting for him (and directing all my activist energy to downballot races).
Like SeanH, I find the list of reasons people may not be excited about Obama to be rather insulting.
President Obama most certainly did not make discussions of race a presidential issue. If you read through his major speeches, he has yet to say the word racism, privilege or oppression. He has assiduously avoided discussions of race and only brings them up when directly asked. I don’t blame him for it but I don’t give he credit. Also, for all of his “support” of Planned Parenthood, he has nixed over the counter access to Plan B, said nothing about the Stupak Amendment, and deported more people than any other president. I am beyond insulted that you lay the lack of enthusiasm for President Obama at the feet of apathy. We’re actually quite pissed off.
[...] ElevenSixTwelve: Mobilizing to Re-elect President Obama in 2012 [...]
I have to choose the lessor of two evils and so I will vote for Obama. I am particularly upset because when Obama signed the law to extend power to remove our due process rights his signing statement at least said HE would not use that power. Now HIS Justice department is fighting to keep that power after a lower court deemed it unconstitutional. It IS unconstitutional and Obama has said in the past he would now use administration to uphold such laws…now we know that both those promises are broken like so many others.
I have a problem trying to convince many of my friends to vote at all, most are telling me they don’t see the point of voting after all that hoping and the not changing – I do not mean he didn’t change anything legislatively. He did not act honestly and do the right thing, he just did the same old tired trading and ultimately he needs the money men so he’s no different. Now, my only hope is that in the last term he will have the courage to actually fix things, to do the right thing with no re-election in sight.
If people like you stopped believing that we had to choose between the “lesser of two evils,” maybe we’d stop being left with only varying degrees of “evil” to choose from.
That wasn’t supposed to sound as snarky as it did. But still.
Or as illogical, I imagine. But still.
Seriously, it’s not OUR BELIEF that makes other people’s actions evil.
Huh? No, sorry, you can’t act on wrong beliefs and then refuse to take at least partial responsibility for the “evil” consequences when you know better and have a REALLY easy way to avoid those actions. Like filling in a different oval on the ballot.
I agree with you on this point.
That was a solid post.
Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil! It upsets me to no end when I hear someone say they are choosing the lesser of two evils. You do realize that we have other people in other parties to vote for? It is time to break away from this strangle hold the two gangs called the demoCRIPS and reBLOODlicans have on us. I am sick of our government lean either to the extreme right or extreme left which really they are not but the mainstream news wants you to think that. We need our government to be centered! We need our government to have EVERYONES best interests in mind not just either the left, the right, or the corporations that sponsor them. This is OUR country each and everyone of us that live here and we are ALL responsible for the trouble we are in.
I agree with SeanH, Stella, macavitykitsune above about how this is a pretty poorly thought out and borderline insulting post, completely ignoring the from-the-left criticisms of Obama’s executive record on drone bombings, assertion of the right to unilaterally kill American citizens, record-setting crackdown on whistleblowers, etc.
In addition it seems a little extra tacky, since the entire website being promoted seems to consist solely of a store for selling T-shirts (no forums, no comments, no blog posts, basically just a shopping cart and a gallery of T-shirts for sale), making this post a glorified advertisement.
Pretty much agree with most of what has been said here.
Yeah. Though I still agree that until somebody has a better solution that will work without riduculous instantaenous population-wide decisions, we had better make the choice that will hold back Voldemort for another four years.
Although I hope there will be no illusions about the fact that I support more of Obama’s controversial policies than you do.
Yep. If it looks like New York is hanging in the balance, I’ll vote for Obama, but I doubt that will happen; the state hasn’t gone Republican since Reagan, and Romney doesn’t have that kind charisma. Most likely I’ll vote to his left. But even if I end up voting for Obama, don’t wag your finger at me for not being enthusiastic enough.
Meh. I’ve directly benefited from a number of Obama’s domestic policies, but I continue to be deeply concerned about his ever-increasing imperialism and human rights violations.
Basically, someone needs to dial the power of the executive back a notch. No one IN the office will do this as they will remain convinced they will use the power to everyone’s advantage.
*Shrug*
I wanted H. Clinton. I still want H. Clinton.
I’ll vote for Obama again, but I am tempted to flounce off with an “I never get anything I want!” almost every election. (Including that time Gore won but W got to be president anyway…)
Like Hilary Clinton has been any better WRT all the things discussed about Obama in this thread! Honestly, there is no candidate, or former candidate in recent history, or practically any politician on a national scale who is from either of the two main parties who has not succumbed to the imperialist, neo-liberal, police- and surveillance-state agenda. I expect Elizabeth Warren to have to follow the same path once she’s elected. And it’s fucking sad.
I voted for Obama in 2008, and I was so excited to FINALLY see some changes in D.C. Well, I’m still waiting. Obama has kept all of Bush’s policies that I hated, AND he signed a bill for indefinite detention of U.S. citizens. Am I voting for him this year? No frigging way. I’m going third party. Eff this two-party/one-party system.
The reason people aren’t as excited to vote for Obama this year isn’t because of the “warn novelty”, it’s because they’re realizing how corrupt of a nation he is trying to create.
The reason people aren’t as excited to vote for Obama this year isn’t because of the “warn novelty”, it’s because they’re realizing how corrupt of a nation he is trying to create.