Persuasive Barack Obama

I can clearly remember being 11 and sitting in my advanced writing class, staring at a magazine on a shelf. The cover featured Barack Obama standing behind a podium and a headline about the 2008 election. I recall wondering what the difference between Republican and Democrat was and why it even mattered so much. I was in 5th grade with no concept of politics besides what we had discussed in class and nothing past the Civil War. Eight years later, with the 2016 election coming up fast, I understand so much more about the world and its complexities. I have opinions now and a vision for America, an America that 5th grade me should have grown up in but didn’t. I dream of an America that strives to improve, provide rights that we guarantee to everyone, …show more content…
It’s not. Yes, we have the right to speak our mind and the luxury of modern technology. But we are not the greatest country in the world. Not anymore, with endless debt and the grand ranking of 14th in education. We can still be great though. That boundless confidence and pride that lets us boast being the best is the very thing that will help us improve. As President Obama said in a campaign speech, “The America we believe in is within our reach. The future we hope for is within our sights.” You can’t go on any sort of social media without seeing people calling for change. Trending hashtags, petitions on Change.org, even Facebook features a news tab. People are coming together, striving to improve. America is already trying to change. America is trying to improve. The nation has done a lot of growing in the past few years, and that’s what will make it great again. Pride and …show more content…
W struggle to get by, to improve ourselves, to be better. But when you’ve been pushed down into the dirt so many times, you start to sit a little longer each time. But the amazing thing is that we always stand back up. We are a nation of perseverance. We have never given up. And maybe right now we are sitting in the dirt, trying to pick constellations out of a tattered sky. But in 1777, the Continental Congress made a new constellation by adding stars to the American flag, and that constellation has since always shown bright. George Washington once said, “We must never despair; our situation has been compromising before, and it has changed for the better; so I trust it will again. If difficulties arise, we must put forth new exertion and proportion our efforts to the exigencies of the times.” No matter the challenges of improving our country, of surviving, we will always rise above. We must then encourage optimism. To give up is to admit that America will never be great