President-elect Barack Obama has secured his place in the White House, but now faces the task of uniting an electorate bitterly divided over his central message. Some believe that hope must come first in order to enact change. Others feel that only once change has taken place will there be reason to hope. “I didn’t just hope for change, the though of change brought hope to me,” said Joe Erneski, a college student and ardent supporter of Barack Obama. He denies that the act of hoping for change will work and that only change can bring hope.
Others, such as Susan Kelley, believe that only when hope exists will there be a possibility of change. “I had hope that change was coming, if I didn’t I probably never would have believed Senator Obama would bring change.” She added that she is already hoping that Barack Obama’s status as President does not change in the 2012 election. “I hope that the change Barack brings remains with us and doesn’t change.”
Geoff Pinter a tenured Professor of Sociology at Major University believes that such a distinction between hope and change is really a fundamental misunderanding of how change and hope effect us as a society. “You can’t have hope without the possiblity of change, while at the same time change inspires our hope.” He elaborated on this point stating that, “Unless we look at what everyone else is doing, we can’t understand what we should do.” In response to the ongoing controversy an Obama spokesperson has this to say:
“Regardless of whether one believes change is more important than hope, or hope is more important than change, we can all agree that George W. Bush is a failure. We can all hope that the days leading up to inauguration will pass quickly and the change from Bush to Obama will not come too soon. Now that Republicans have losts many seats in the House and Senate, as well as control of the white house, we can begin to rebuild America and form a bipartisan coalition with the Democrats. That is the kind of Hope and Change we can all believe in.”
In the coming days Barack Obama will need to bring together a bipartisan coalition in order to reconcile his competing and zealous supporters with each other. If not, his Presidency could be marked by change moving away from hope.
Tags: Barack Obama, Politics, Satire
