Perhaps change is linked to stopping the business as usual that is going on at all levels of Washington....its funny the resident righty sorta mocks the whole concept of change....is that to mean you favor the status quo? Please, I cant believe that, oh thats right you're fne with the performance of America in your lifetime. Perhaps you need to get out more then because while I am "fine" with it, I know--no demand--that we can do better.....I think the change is how business will be done in Washington, rather than giving us the best government money can buy--you know the one where the R's cry about illegal immigration, but then allow their corporate backers to break the laws time and time again relative to hiring them and so forth.
We want change from that hollow rhetoric that the leaders in Washington have been giving us for years now, whether its the bland calls for bi-partisanship, but then claiming that anyone who opposes this president is somehow unpatriotic and aiding terrorism.....or the shallow assurances that we're looking out for the middle class only to pass legislation that helps entitiies like big oil, big pharm and big insurance co's at the expense of the common tax payer.....or the boasts of tax cuts and fiscal responsibility only to be washed away with sopping giveways to the political donor class and pseudo, looks good on paper tax cuts that end up costing the common man more in hidden tax and fee increases and an untenable future deficit.....or the calls for new innovative ideas, only to see those new ideas either ignored or subjected to scare tactic media campaigns against those ideas on behalf of the comfy powers that be......or the brave face put on by our leaders saying they are protecting us from terror only to find out its false bravado and that whatever military incursions we've done recently have been to benefit certain entitites with little regard to if its actually making us or the world a safer place.
I could go on and on and on.....change is an intangible concept.....its how we go about our business. It about how we go about working as a representative government. Its going from being the best government money can buy, back to being a progressive government, for the people, by the people.
Change is acceptance of ideas that bubble up from the people or that they demand....rather than vetoing them and claiming that "I" and only "I" know better.......change is conducting business on certain issues as the public demands, rather than hearing from the Halls of Congress, that well, "we" have other ideas about what "we" feel are more pressing concerns.
Candidates like Rudy, Romney, Hillary, Thompson represent the old guard....the ones who want to maintain the status quo, who deep down want to keep the country partisanly divided and needs these problems we have kept unsolved because doing so helps their political aims. The ones who can cite a stat for anything to prove their way is correct and working, while ignoring other evidence that proves where, how and why its not working
.....like immigration. The R's dont want it solved because without it, much of the fear tactics they use will disappear, while their corporate cronies might have to pay more for labor. Meanwhile the D's see it as a way to perhaps expand their voting base all the whle patting themselves on the back for their "liberal" good will.
Guys like Obama, Paul, Edwards and even Huckabee speak a good game right now...its why groups like Unity 08 are grabbing something of a foothold as well.....Obama and Paul hammer the theme home that business as usual can not continue, even though they are on opposite ends of the spectrum. I bet if we were subjected to just having those two speak to each other at a roundtable about ideas, we all we be 'huh, those guys have some ideas, lets mesh them together and get 'er done." Meanwhile the other candidates would be trying to outpatriot the other and would refuse to sit with one another on principle alone.
The public is beginning to see through all of this. We probably need 2-3 more elections where people powered candidates--like in 2006--come out on top before the change can be complete, but electing a people powered president would be an important step. Iowa was a big step towards that. Last night, not so much. And we need someone in there who will represent the people, rather than the powerful. Someone who will embrace ideas from the public, rather than ignore them and claim to now better like our current president.
Sorry....rant over.
