Published on Friday, January 11, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
Dispatch From the North Country: Of Hamsters New, Hope in Blue, and ‘Change’ out the Wazoo
by David Michael Green
Anybody up for some change?

That’s the operative word in American politics this week. Of course, change can mean a whole lot of different things. Loose change. Chump change. Change of heart. Quick change artist. Change of underwear.

And, really, it’s not at all clear what it means in this context - or more importantly, if it really means anything at all. It’s more than a little probable that a whole bunch of grossly over-priced Bob Shrum types looked at what happened in Iowa and arrived at the same brilliant conclusion that any alert eighth-grader could have provided for the price of a skateboard rather than a McLean McMansion. Namely, that the American public is unhappy, and is looking for something different. You don’t need a graduate education or a consulting license to figure that one out.

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Meanwhile, I don’t care about partisanship or parties. What matters to me is policies, because they are what matter to people’s lives. But here’s the thing (and please take good notes on this, Barack): You start putting down markers on this policy and that, and pretty soon you’ve got yourself an ideology and a partisan association, whether you like it or not. If you want an end to the war, a beginning to national healthcare and a solution to global warming, you’re leaning left and the only realistic hope you have to see any of that happen is through the election of Democrats. If you take the opposite position on those issues you’re a conservative, and the GOP is your party. The point is that it is not as easy to transcend ideology and partisanship as Obama thinks. And it’s especially difficult when the other side doesn’t even remotely share your vision of turning political swords into plowshares. A very big question for me is what will Obama do, should he get the nomination, when corporate interests and their GOP flacks, both of whom have everything to lose with any real reform in America, train their 16-inch guns on him?

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