Addressing viewers during his final appearance on the “Tonight Show” Saturday, Conan O’Brien pleaded with those watching to stop being so cynical. “I hate cynicism,” the talk show host said. “It doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get.”

But when pondering the past year and the current state of politics in America, it’s hard not to be a cynic.

Two important anniversaries occurred last week. One year ago Wednesday, an excited nation gathered around television screens to watch Barack Obama be sworn in as the 44th president. It was an occasion that seemed to herald a new period of camaraderie, political openness and, well, hope.

Friday, however, marked another milestone: one year since the new president signed an executive order pledging to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The target date came and passed, and the controversial prison remains in operation as the home of 193 U.S. detainees.

How things change in a year.

The president’s failure to meet his self-imposed deadline can be thought of as a metaphor for his first year in office: an excellent idea, fueled by common sense and full of good intentions that was met with violent opposition and warped by legislative bickering.

The same fate has seemingly befallen most of Obama’s lofty promises, from lowering taxes to health care reform.

He went in with bright eyes and high hopes, but as a relative newcomer to politics he was woefully unaware of the difficulties of operating in the system and actually doing good.

Obama was abruptly introduced to the deadening power of politics and found himself surrounded by career politicians — senators and representatives who, instead of doing what’s best for their constituents, do only what it takes to keep their jobs.

The president now seems to be surprised by the reactions of the American people; shell-shocked and frustrated by attacks against him and arguments against his policies.

These same people may ask: Where’s the change we were promised? Where’s the hope we need?

Here it would be appropriate to take from Mahatma Gandhi, a leader Obama often quoted during his 2008 campaign: “We must be the change we wish to see.”

The change the Obama campaign so heartily promised has to first come from us.

Americans must stop attacking good people and ideas simply because they don’t agree with a certain political ideology.

We must stop freaking out when our president bows to Asian dignitaries or forgets to wear a flag pin on his lapel.

We need to become a nation that can work together, one that can allow the party in power, whoever they may be, to at least try to fix a nation that finds itself so broken.

Maybe then the next three years will confer on us the change we were promised, and we’ll find a reason to let go of the cynicism.

But I doubt it.

Reach Zach at zfowle@asu.edu