These days, the illusion of “Hope and Change” for President Obama’s grassroots support seems to finally be fading, as even those on the progressive left are expressing their disappointment with his first term in office.
During an environmentalism panel at Campus Progress, a conference gathering for progressive college students, multiple environmentalism advocates admitted a degree of dissatisfaction with Barack Obama’s first term in office, noting that the direction of the country hasn’t much changed in the past three years.
Bill McKibben, a noted environmentalist who is famous for anti-fracking activism, acknowledged that many Americans had been fooled by the incredible awe and positive energy in 2008.
“As far as the election goes, look, its not as much fun as it was 4 years ago, you guys don’t get the incredible fun that it was in 2008,” McKibben said. “We’ve seen the pressures that Barack Obama works under, and we’ve frankly seen that, maybe we all believe a little more than we should’ve.”
Another panelist, Navin Nayak, from the League of Conservation Voters, also expressed sentiments of disappointment at the “change” since Obama’s victory in 2008.
“On the one hand, I’m a pretty pessimistic person with some of the data I look at,” said Nayak. “Frankly, I really thought that President Obama’s election would have changed the dynamic in this country.”
The focus of the panel was green energy, and included a discussion of efforts to combat the proposed expansion of the Keystone Pipeline.
