Change

Don’t you love all these candidates promising change? It’s time for a change! We’re for change! Mitt Romney vows he’ll bring “change to Washington.” His supporters hold up signs that say, “Change begins with us.” Barack Obama pledges “change we can believe in,” while John Edwards offers “the change we need.” And Hillary Rodham Clinton harps on her experience “making change,” like it was nickels and dimes, or bread, or some other commodity, a product, something concrete in and of itself.

Change. What a concept. But, of course, this has been the promise ever since candidates realized that would have to be the foundation for any platform. Otherwise why run in the first place? Even Fred Thompson has said in public that “change has been a part of every election since the dawn of elections.” What else have you got if you haven’t got change, if you’re not going to change the way things are, the status quo, because, after all, isn’t that what you’re running against? Right? You certainly wouldn’t want to run against change, would you? “Don’t change a thing” just doesn’t cut it, does it?

G.W. Bush gave us some change, but his change came up pretty short for most people while it jingled for the special interests behind his self-serving charade as a legacy president. In the end, change may not have anything to do with the people voting for these candidates. Too often it appears to be only a change of partners up there in the parallel universe where these politicians seem to reproduce. And somehow that void doesn't seem to include our solar system. Talk about loose change.

Obviously, change is all around us, all the time. Everything is always changing. It’s one of the universal conditions of all existence, like the weather. And it seems to be a human obsession to change things, all the time, and not just the sheets, the oil, or the channel, but to work for change in meaningful ways at home, at work, even in ourselves, and often coined as “a change for the better,” so to speak, or sometimes even “a change of heart.” We’re always looking for change. We want it so bad that it has become a cliché, and by association the candidates all sound the same — banal. The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. Now, how can we change that?