Obama and change...will it really happen? (An opinion)

      Will anything really change if Barack Obama wins the U.S. presidency? That is a moot question, especially in the wake of the ticking of Senator Joseph Biden as vice-presidential candidate. Political flip-flops are the order of the day, as any experienced observer recognizes,  as the moment approaches when lady power waves wantonly, just around the corner.

     Obama, true, has a record of opposition to the invasion of Irak, and has advocated a number of other innovations, a revamping of medical care, a new way of doing politics, innovation in alternative fuels... But Biden, the Senator from Delaware and the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, helped push through the resolution President George Bush sent to Congress authorizing the invasion of Iraq. True, he later had second thoughts about his own decision but...and you've got to give politicians the chance to review their own actions...but...

     Biden, 65, is a long time establishment figure, having served with more than three decades in the Senate, and the fourth longest serving Democratic senator in Congress. Obama has frequently come under fire from conservatives and from Republican candidate McCain, for his alleged lack of experience. So, naming Biden as vice-presidential candidate is like saying: "Don’t worry! I’m not opposed to the system. Look who I’ve named to help me! A guy who has been in Washington for years."

Does that guarantee change? Change is a very strange fellow, commonly talked about by most politicians (who are not in power). But we should ask whether it is really well intentioned individuals who bring about change, or whether political, economic systems accept change as a way of ensuring their own survival.

You might also have read that Obama recently made it clear that for him getting out of Iraq means getting more involved in Afghanistan, where he says the war on terrorism should have been focused in the first place. Curious. Due to the recent bombings of allied forces in that country, causing numerous civilian deaths, the president, a firm ally of the U.S., is having second thoughts about how the foreign troops are waging the war against alleged terrorists in Afghanistan.

Well, foreign affairs isn’t everything, is it? Yet whoever wins will have to take charge of a country not only at war, but which has been involved in wars during most of its existence--from the Westward Movement, the war against Mexico, the war over the Spanish colonies (Cuba and the Philippines), the first and second world wars, the frequent invasions of Latin American countries, the Cold War...) Can the country free itself of this endless series of conflicts? Can it conceive of another way of doing its foreign affairs?

The question remains: will there be a real change of foreign policy, of internal economic policy, of social security, of health, of the policies related to immigration? Or will there be balancing acts aimed at introducing just enough change to satisfy those who demand it and enough backsliding to pacify the  vested interests? Bringing about a change in any one of these areas supposes the strong opposition of vested interests. After years of tax reductions, for example, will giant corporations accept paying more to bail out an economy zig-zagging with inflation, unemployment, and financial scandals?

Didn’t President Bill Clinton want to introduce important change in the medical care programs? What happened? Didn’t President John F. Kennedy want to end racial discrimination, alter relations with the Soviet Union? What happened? Any change in any significant area of activity will necessarily lean on the support of the country's citizens. But how free are they to decide complicated issues? How influenced are they by the opinions of the mass media and the image makers?

Change is a nice word for politicians to tally during elections, because there are lots of people who really want it and need it. The problem is what happens when somebody who talks about change gets into the seats of power. Real power appears to be elsewhere, not in the faces of those people who occupy the seats where it says: "president."