Bob Myer:

…behind the calls for change is a genuine fear of change. The economy, for instance, cannot be allowed ebb and flow; it must remain constant. Or better yet, it must grow at a quicker and quicker pace. Home values can’t change, if change means a decrease in value. Again, constancy dictates ever rising home values. Anything less than constant positive movement in these areas is a world-stopping crisis, and we’re to believe that something must be done to stop the change.

The grand daddy of all fear of change issues is global warming, a.k.a. “climate change”. Some folks fear the well-established fact that global climate actually changes. They simply can’t accept that the earth gets warmer and colder because of forces much greater than humans and our CO2 emissions. Some folks believe this so much that they’re willing to do whatever it takes to “save the world”, even if staving off what may or may not be CO2-induced wrecks lives, economies and countries. Those changes are excusable only because they would be committed in the pursuit of “saving the world”. Climate change’s messianic vision trumps human suffering in the abstract.

So we’re asked to believe in change, to vote for change, to know that change is needed. But what we’re more than likely going to get is less change on important issues, issues that can really influence our future for the better. Universal health care, extended unemployment benefits and other nanny state initiatives are only good so long as the money flows through them. Both Senators Clinton and Obama seem to have rallied around the idea America should trust them to institute change, just trust them. In doing so, they have given the GOP candidate (whoever that may be) a chance to substantively differentiate himself from his Democrat counterpart in the general election.