Friday, October 17, 2008

Change is Needed, but What Kind and How Much?

Question: Both Barack Obama and John McCain vow to change things when they become President of the United States. But what will their change entail, specifically as it has to do with their use of the word fundamental? Sen. Obama uses it to describe the change he's going to make - "fundamental change", and Sen. McCain uses it to describe what's gone on - "the fundamentals of our economy are strong". Please respond.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This is a question that really gets me. I do think there needs to be a change in the way some things are done, but as it seems to be with most things in politics, it swings too far. It's either "stick with how we've always done things" or "everything needs an overhaul and we need to change the way everything has been done".
Sorry, not overly insightful, but I really enjoyed this question, it made me think. Thanks for your posts!

Addy said...

First of all, Obama is not going to be able to deliver on his promises of fundamental change. The Democrats won Congress with the exact same promises and now they have an incredibly low approval rating because they cannot deliver. Will the aptly-named "Do Nothing" Congress suddenly spring to life under his leadership? Unlikely. They won't want to implement his tax plan or approve his spending in a recession. But by fundamental I think he is talking about ideological and that scares me because he presents himself very moderately in the debates while his record in both his votes and in the primaries shows that his ideology is fundamentally socialist and liberal.

I hate that McCain backed off his "fundamentals" statement by trying to clarify that he was referring to the American workforce. He would have been right that the "fundamental" principles of freedom and capitalism are strong, but they also have cyclical highs and lows that we have to weather.