I would say they ignore you at their peril. Nothing wrong with being an old commie liberal weirdo or even an old right winger conservative weirdo as long as you can be nice.

Only thing I might take issue with is the characterization that congress was the problem. Obama enjoyed 2 years with control of both houses of congress and after Jan. 2011, control of the senate until this coming January. While republicans had control of the purse strings in the house from Jan. 2011, they had little actual ability to change things with Harry Reid running the senate and making sure that anything he did not like, any republican ideas, ever made it to the floor of the senate. Obama has enjoyed a majority in favorability, which many do not understand. Democratic policies have held sway for the last 8 years. At least the last 6 years have seen about 70% of the people think the direction the country is going is wrong. That reflects on democratic policies. Policies in place since the end of 2007.