Sunday Opinion: Why students blamed liberal leadership for shutdown

I am on college campuses all the time. Talking with students, reporting on a variety of college related issues, seeing politics from their point of view. 

Of all the videos I have produced, none have shocked me quite the way my recent trip to the University of Colorado has. 

After deciding to have students tally who they blame for the government shutdown I figured the results would reflect national polling. I was in The People’s Republic of Boulder after all. 

An NBC/WSJ poll reports that “By a 22-point margin (53 percent to 31 percent), the public blames the Republican Party more for the shutdown than President Barack Obama.”

But my experience at the dependably liberal college proved otherwise. 

As I asked students who they blamed for the shutdown the overwhelming response was to accuse Democrat leadership. 

“He’s [Obama] just being really stubborn, not willing to negotiate at all, not taking any ideas from anyone else” one student said, “it’s either his [Obama’s] way or the highway and apparently we got to shutdown the government because of that.”

After talking with students I came to understand how President Obama’s decree “I will not negotiate” has resonated. 

The President’s comments are seen as purely partisan politics. 

Students want a leader willing to work across the isle, one who brings two bickering parties together. Instead, students commented on how the negotiations are being hijacked by the executive through narrow minded leadership for the purpose of tearing the opposition down.

As America rapidly approaches the $17 trillion debt mark, one thing is true; business as usual cannot continue. Students recognize that a compromise must be reached and that can only happen if both sides are willing to negotiate.

Follow the Author of this article on Twitter: @CalebBonham