You can argue that Republicans have blocked President Obama from doing just about anything. You can argue that he's had bad luck. You can argue that he isn't always the greatest orator. But you can't argue away that the Department of Justice took the unprecedented step of seizing phone records from the Associated Press. Or the flimsy rationale justifying drone attacks abroad and at home. Or the bizarre step the Pentagon has taken to expand the ability of the military to intervene in state and local matters. Or the fact that Guantanamo Bay is still open years after Obama vowed he would close it, and the US is making headlines for force feeding inmates.

These are actions that President Obama and his top team have taken on their own.

Yes, the various scandals have been politicized this week. That's the American we live in today, but even among Obama voters, there should be genuine disappointment. This not the President Obama we voted for, not even close.

I was in Washington DC the night that Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. As usual, people were hopping from bar to bar to watch the returns come in and high five friends (or boo, in some cases). When it became clear that Obama had won and he gave his victory speech, something happened that I have rarely witnessed in America: spontaneous demonstrations broke out. People started marching down some of the main streets, many shaking keys or banging on pots and pans. Others carried American flags. Cars honked (more than usual) in solidarity.

It was mostly young people marching – from varied backgrounds. Many of these parades ended up in front of the White House where chants of "goodbye Bush" (or some variation thereof) began. It was the same slogan heard as Barack Obama was sworn in as president in January 2009 and Bush flew away in a helicopter.

There was a belief, especially among voters in their 20s and 30s, that Obama was going to be different. That his promises to "change the culture in Washington" were real. That his administration wouldn't be beholden to lobbyists and conduct executive power grabs. That any wars would be justified.

This was, after all, the candidate who put statements on his website like:

"The Bush administration has ignored public disclosure rules and has invoked a legal tool known as the 'state secrets' privilege more than any other previous administration to get cases thrown out of civil court."

Don't get me wrong, we've seen cracks in Obama's idealism since he was sworn in as president. It is typified in the fact that prisoners – 166 of them – are still detained at Guantanamo Bay despite Obama's promises to close the prison swiftly after he took office.

But this week was one head-shaking moment too many for me, and it appears from the president's sinking approval rating that others – including some who gave Obama a real chance – are with me. As a registered Republican, I thought long and hard about whether to vote for Obama, but I crossed party lines, as did many of my young peers. I wanted a more transparent and accountable government. I wanted America to make a very different statement after the Bush years.

Yet even setting aside Benghazi and the IRS conservative targeting ordeal, which is a big set aside considering reports now suggest that officials in Washington were very much involved, there's still plenty that makes Obama's presidency eerily reminiscent of the Bush administration, especially when it comes to these "trust us, this is in the name of national security" kind of statements.

Huh? The government just had to seize the phone records of 20 Associated Press phone lines, including on in the agency's Congress bureau, and not tell anyone about it for what appears to be weeks. This was supposedly done because of a leak about a failed al-Qaida plot in Yemen on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death in 2012. But as the AP has stated, it held the article for several days before publication because of a government request, and CIA Director John Brennan later testified that there was no threat to the American people since the plot was foiled.

Keep in mind that candidate Obama opposed the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping of US citizen phones in the name of national security.

Something doesn't line up here, and the fact that no one in the Justice Department has been fired like the IRS acting commissioner suggests that the White House doesn't see anything wrong.

No, this isn't in the league of weapons of mass destruction that don't exist. But add the AP overreach to the Obama administration's stance on drones, inaction on Guantanamo and the continued push to expand military and intelligence powers and you get more of the same old White House power grabs.

This isn't the president so many took to the streets to cheer on in 2008. And the blame for that can't be placed solely on partisan politics or the media's thirst for a good scandal.