Hey Vice Presidential Candidates, Leave Us Kids Alone!

If young America bothers to watch tonight's vice-presidential debate they won't be rooting, this time, for the candidate who claims he has the most to offer.

We’ve been there and done that.

Last time it was our votes that swept President Obama to victory. On that cold January morning, even I, a young conservative, couldn’t help but feel warmed by the promise that he would unthaw the "winter of our hardship.”

His gorgeous prose along with the enormous historical weight of the moment brought many of us to hope his fantastic winter's tale might come true.

But four years later we are still buffeted by those winter winds, and they have sharpened. The president’s pealing promises of hope and change rang hollow. The magic of the rhetoric turned out to be too thin of gruel to sustain us through the hardship that was to come.

Things now could hardly be worse now for my stalled generation. Optimism is low. Unemployment is high. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this month, for example, that for 18 to 24-year-olds, the demographic that gave President Obama a 34-point edge in 2008, unemployment hovers at a devastating 15.7 percent.

The responsibility for all that has been lost cannot not be placed solely on President Obama. Rather it belongs to all of the lawmakers who told, and continue to tell the lie that government is the author, giver, or sustainer of wealth, jobs, and happiness. Here of course Republicans are nearly as guilty as Democrats.

We may have been fooled last time but we won’t be fooled again.

America’s youth are tired of the empty rhetoric and meaningless clichés. We won’t tolerate it this time from you President Obama or from you, Vice President Biden, Gov. Romney, or Rep. Ryan.

We don’t want one of your jobs and you don't have them to give anyway. We want to be left alone.  We want to create, and rise, and fail by ourselves and to do without you.

Get out of our way. Practically this means we want to work at our named price, however high or low. We want to know that we will keep all, or almost all of the money we earn.

We won't obey your clip board toting bureaucrats who telling us we can't drink raw milk or that we must purchase health insurance or were bicycle helmets. We won't be babysat by your Consumer Protection Bureau. The list goes on.

I won’t endorse a candidate, but when I watch the debate tonight I won't be looking for the candidate who will help me, encourage me, or inspire me.  I am looking for a presidential team that will get out of my way.