Change You Can Bereave In

Are people voting for Barack because he represents Change? It hardly seems possible, since his time in the U.S. Senate has shown him to be one of the top representatives of the status quo.

Consider this. Last year, the average United States Senator voted with his party 84% of the time. Obama, on the other hand,

...voted with his party 96 percent of the time. In the prior two years, his number was 95 percent, making him the fourth most partisan member of the Senate. And not just partisan, but also highly ideological. In 2007, according to the National Journal, Obama’s voting record made him “the most liberal Senator.”

Are people misunderstanding the word Change, or is change simply code for liberal? I have many otherwise intelligent people telling me they're voting for Barack because they want Change, but they're all liberals.

Throughout his Senate career, according to Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), the dean of liberal advocacy groups, Obama voted “right” 90 percent of the time. Actually this is misleading, since ADA counts an absence as if it were a vote on the “wrong” side. If we discount his absences, Obama voted to ADA’s approval more than 98 percent of the time.

But the change that Barack was selling during primary season was something greater than extending the ineffective leadership of congress over to the executive branch. He was talking about fundamentally changing the way Washington does business. Thus far in his career, however, change is not something he's attempted.