"Those Who Stand For Nothing, Fall For Anything"

I recently came across an article on CNN discussing the upcoming midterm elections. There is growing speculation that the very thing that Obama hitched his Presidential victory on may provide energy to the Republicans in the primary. Change.

Despite fixating his Presidential energy on "change," we still don't really know what that means. In Obama's first year in the White House, he has proved to be a somewhat elusive figure. He has failed to take a clearly defined stance on many issues, notably domestic policy with the exception of health care. For those issues that he did take a clear stand on, the President has wavered his position, for example, closing Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Because of this, we don't really know what "change" means anymore.

However, from what we can discern, it is starting to mean anything but the status quo at any given time. Burke defined man as the symbol using/misusing/shaping/making etc. animal. Whatever it is that people wanted "change" to symbolize and materialize itself as, it has not. Arguably one of the reasons Scott Brown was so successful in the MA Senate seat. The election was MUCH more than just for the Senate seat. It represented people from around the country energizing what could be labeled as the "anti-change." We did not (and still don't for the most part) really know what Scott Brown was all about, but we knew he stood for something that was not what we were getting. Yet another elusive attempt at creating change...which we will likely see gaining energy in the midterm elections this year.

But how can we ever be satisfied with what we are getting, or not getting, if we don't know what we stand for? At the time of Obama's victory we stood for "change." Now, we don't like how that symbol has come to fruition, so we are looking for more "change." We are a clutter of symbols that really have come to have no meaning.

Coming full circle, Alexander Hamilton couldn't be more correct when he said "those who stand for nothing will fall for anything." America, we are doing that one day at a time.

ev