What does "change" mean to you?

I'm not someone who has much of a belief in electoral politics, and certainly not at the national level. Despite this, I took notice when Barack Obama's campaign for president really took off. I had heard some things before, things that sounded pretty positive and non-standard for Democractic politician. A lot of people whose opinions and judgments I respect spoke very highly of him and had some real faith in this man, a faith that I had not seen them express previously.

In no way would I have characterized myself of a supporter of him, but I was at least not as immediately dismissive of him as I tend to be with politicians. I thought that maybe he really was different. I thought maybe it meant something significant that he is a Black man in America. I don't anymore. In the scope of the race to be the Democratic presidential nominee, it means that people hate women more than refined Black men.

Over the last week or so, I have read some news reports that have leveled Barack Obama, in my estimation, to the same level as any other run of the mill person seeking political office. He's just another one of them. First, there was an article in Time that detailed his recent shifts towards "the center" of the contemporary American political spectrum, regarding stances on things like the death penalty and gun ownership. Today, the New York Times published two articles further elucidating these shifts. One reveals that he completely abandoned his opposition "legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration’s program of wiretapping without warrants." He now supports granting immunity to these companies. Why? He deemed it the best deal possible. Ok...

Finally, he is pushing the same bullshit George W. Bush initiative to federally fund private "faith-based organizations" under the guise of providing social services. Why is this? Well, he says that “The challenges we face today — from saving our planet to ending poverty — are simply too big for government to solve alone...We need an all-hands-on-deck approach.” Sure, whatever. This is what happens when you have people who believe in a literal god running the country. Yes, they actually believe there is a superbeing somewhere else that controls shit and made everything. Wow. Anyway, he claims that his position is a marked departure from that of the current administration's in that “If you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them — or against the people you hire — on the basis of their religion." Apparently, George W. Bush's program allows these organizations to do that currently. Really though, does it fucking matter who they hire? I find the problem to be that they are religious organizations in the first place. I am much more concerned with them proselytizing those they are "helping," people who are in much more vulnerable positions, than those they hire.