Well, okay. Change. Congratulations to Obama and Huckabee--though I still, honestly, fail to see the appeal of the latter, and still support Edwards, who landed second among Democrats. I hear pundits talking about voters wanting a change in Washington, pontificating about the Beltway... I see it differently. It's not just Washington where the change is needed. For better or worse, Washington is US! The change that's needed in in the hearts and minds of Americans everywhere. Perhaps we're beginning to see it. I hope so.
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For me, the following quotes from last night's speeches contain the essential difference between the Edwards and Obama campaigns.
"...corporate greed has got a stranglehold on America. And unless and until we have a president...who has a little backbone, who has some strength, who has some fight, who's willing to stand up to these people, nothing will change. We will never have the America that all of us dream of."
-John Edwards, 1/3/08
"...The time has come to move beyond the bitterness and pettiness and anger that's consumed Washington. To end the political strategy that's been all about division and instead make it about addition. To build a coalition for change that stretches through red states and blue states, because that's how we'll win in November and that's how we'll finally meet the challenges that we face as a nation."
-Barack Obama, 1/3/08
The difference is not about policy but strategy. Yes, corporations are greedy and their refusal to protect the environment and human rights are detrimental. But will we change anything by accusing them (and their elected supporters) of such greed??? In my experience you don't convince anyone to do anything by yelling at them or attacking their values or intentions. Instead, you try to win their trust and grudging respect, to take them off the defensive so that their minds gradually begin to open.
"Politics is applesauce." ~ Will Roger
Iowa speaks...
So, the votes are in...relatively huge numbers of them...particularly on the side of Democrats...could these sheer turnout numbers foreshadow the future result of the '08 presidential election, irrespective of the candidate selected, for the Democrats?
Is the result of last night's Iowa caucus a true representation of what the whole of America is looking for in the coming election?; that of 'change', a new course for America from the path we've been on; and, which seems currently stalled; a stalemate?
Surely, the 'winners'; Huckabee and Obama represented, in their own unique ways, a desire from Iowans for a change in the perceived 'sort' of people they'd like representing them as President starting in January '09...
But, what is the nature of the 'change' they are looking for?
Is it 'change' for change sake?...Is it a wish to find someone (or something) to 'save' them? Make all things right?...through the casting of their vote and the desire for all things to be made right simply by this action?
Is Huckabee's apparent majority support from right-wing 'born again' evangelical Christians to be perceived as Republican Iowan's, I think, errant desire to too closely mix religion with politics and politics with religion (again!?) as the means to resolve all things American?
Is Obama's charisma, freshness, excitement and oratory skills for change enough to grant him a mandate, a means to achieve the type and degree of change he expresses? Which, I would argue, at this point, seems really more about campaign rhetoric than real change.
Perhaps the result of the Iowa vote is merely just yet another sort of passing of responsibility;...if 'this' didn't work...then, let's give 'that' a try...let's deal the cards to see if we can get a better hand...a half-hearted attempt.
Perhaps, just a shallow look by Iowa voters into the actual messages of change/no-change in the campaign messages of Huckabee and Obama.
I don't know...I have some early opinions...but, it's too soon to tell...No doubt, the remainder of the various primaries in other states will begin hitting us very soon...and, quite possibly, result in quite different results than the voice of Iowans already spoken...
Here we go!...
John Torcello
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