“Hey, it’s a recession!”

I’ve heard this expression used flippantly ten thousand times over the past few months. In the early days of the downfall of the economy, I had used it myself as a way to combat the growing hysteria over our nation’s well-being. Now it seems that everyone has made a caricature of the situation, to the point where I’ve had to wonder: has there ever been a trendier recession?

Like all trendy items, the recession started out fashionable – with the majority of the population either appalled, afraid, or unaware – and only a few brave souls, the recessionistas, dared to (literally) wear the economy ironically on their sleeves and call it “recession chic.” Then it trickled down to the masses.

The recession is now a catch-phrase. It’s an excuse or a reason for everything. “I’ve taken up cooking – I figure it can’t hurt in this economy to go out less.” “In this economy, I’m not buying people much for their birthday.” And every store sale has used it, too. “Your chocolate stimulus package has arrived,” or the more subtle, “Stock up NOW on sweaters for less,” as if to say, “You may not have $39.99 tomorrow.”

But who has really been affected? Who is making sacrifice? Unemployment is high, and as a soon-to-be-graduating college senior, I know very few people who are gainfully employed for next year. Most aren’t even trying to find work. And yet I never hear these things attributed to the bad economy. I instead only hear that my office at Georgetown cannot buy three hole punched paper because we already have regular paper and need to cut back on supplies.

I wonder if the American people are willing or able to sacrifice anymore. Look at what was done during the depression and then World War II to save an economy on the verge of death and to see that evil was defeated in Europe. People cut back on meat and grew their own food in gardens so there would be more to supply to the troops. They melted down metal so that they’d have supplies. They gave up more than one of their shopping sprees on M Street.

I wonder, too, if Barack Obama is too flippant and aloof a president to lead a nation through this crisis. I get the impression that Mr. Obama thinks he can solve things mostly on his own. He is a brilliant and fascinating human being, but no one individual can see our country through. We need a leader who can, for example, challenge us to cut back dramatically on the energy that we consume in a drastic, WWII-style way – not just show up at an Iowa factory for a photo-op and try to ram a climate change bill through congress.

Phil Gramm, a former Republican senator and McCain ‘08 surrogate, stirred up a lot of controversy when he said that the recession was all in our minds, and that we’d become “a nation of whiners.” While I was shocked that he thought the recession was make believe, I wonder if he wasn’t right on his second point. For all of our grumbling about the state of our country – often half-ironically and usually belittlingly – how much have we really felt it? How much are we willing to do about it? Do we really care about the environment we’re destroying, the low-income people losing their jobs, the single moms who have no where to live? Or are we just in the market to victimize ourselves because it feels kind of trendy?

The recession has become a worn-out punchline, and we might as well acknowledge it. Friends: ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what your cliche can do for your country.