![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/sotu1.jpg\")
\nWake County Young Democrats gathered to watch the State of the Union Tuesday night.<\/center><\/p>\n
More than 40 people showed up at the Player\u2019s Retreat on Hillsborough Street Tuesday night for the Wake County Young Democrats\u2019 annual State of the Union watch party.<\/p>\n
Young and old Democrats crowded into tables and booths around beers and bowls of Mimi\u2019s sausage dip and chips (a gutsy combination of sausage gravy and Frito\u2019s) to watch the speech on a projector television, the kind usually reserved for Hurricanes or Wolfpack games.<\/p>\n
But with President Obama\u2019s campaign for hope and change a memory of the not-so-distant past, none of Wake\u2019s young Democrats held illusions of grandeur or major change for the State of the Union.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s shown he\u2019s willing to meet people halfway, sometimes to his detriment,\u201d said Matt Calabria, vice president of young Democrats group. \u201cFor any reform there has to be some level of compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt bothers me that some people think the past couple of years were a failure,\u201d said Austen High, an NCSU graduate. \u201cAt least it\u2019s something,\u201d she added in reference to health care reform and tax cuts.<\/p>\n
Speech brings moments of mixed reaction<\/strong><\/p>\n From education to innovation and job creation, the crowd showed signs of approval for the general thrust of President Obama\u2019s vision for the country.<\/p>\n Just as the president was getting everyone tuned in to the right time to applaud, about halfway through his speech, he said, \u201cI am proposing that starting this year, we freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years.\u201d<\/p>\n To this, the crowd at the Player\u2019s Retreat quickly cut off its applause and almost in unison began exclaiming, \u201cWoah, woah, woah!\u201d<\/p>\n The middle portion of the president\u2019s speach went on to address reducing the national deficit, simplifying the individual tax code and reorganizing the federal government in order to restore the people\u2019s faith in the institution.<\/p>\n \u201cThese were not just the issues of the last election,\u201d said Calabria. \u201cThese are the issues of today.\u201d<\/p>\n The only other uneasy moment came when President Obama said he would veto any bill to hit his desk, which contained earmarks. Throughout the crowd, people blurted out, \u201cThat ain\u2019t going to happen!\u201d and, \u201cThat\u2019s bullshit,\u201d in response.<\/p>\n Newly elected Guilford County\u00a0 State Representative Marcus Brandon, who aged out of the young Democrats three days earlier, was on hand for the State of the Union before his swearing in at the General Assembly today.<\/p>\n \u201cEarmarks are really difficult to tackle,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it\u2019s not something for your district then you call it an earmark. Maybe it was good for him to say<\/em>, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Accepting the vision<\/strong><\/p>\n President Obama\u2019s persistent references to innovation and doing big things struck a chord with the young Democrats.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople need to pull it together,\u201d said High, who complained of American complacency.<\/p>\n \u201cI support the president in continuing to keep an emphasis on global trade, but we must find a way for it to create jobs here, not just in other countries,\u201d said Priscilla Peace, treasurer of Wake County Young Democrats.<\/p>\n The president of WCYD John Verdejo continued, \u201cWe have degrees but no ways of using them. The speech, hopefully, made us open our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n Verdejo commented, \u201cThe speech harkened back to JFK and the philosophy of \u2018Don\u2019t ask what your country can do for you, but for what you can do for you country.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Many at the event expressed concern over what little might be accomplished during the next two years.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he can make progress,\u201d said Tristy Evely, a student at Wake Tech. \u201cIf he can advocate strong enough and be eloquent enough, then maybe. But, he\u2019s going to have [Speaker of the House John] Boehner after him every minute.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More than 40 people showed up at the Player\u2019s Retreat on Hillsborough Street Tuesday night for the Wake County Young Democrats\u2019 annual State of the Union watch party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24024,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}