The call for change

The message we’re hearing over and over is that the election was a “mandate for change”, and that line came from so many pundits and news analysts, no need for attribution beyond Paul Zahn on CNN, Mort Kondracke on Fox News, Democrat Rahm Emmanuel, etc…

The question is what change did America mandate? It’s easy to chock it up to Iraq, and the ‘anybody but the incumbents,’ and ‘anything different than what we’ve done so far.’ I heard Senator John McCain in an interview on Fox last night sounding grim, before the evening was even over. He works well with the Democrat party, that wasn’t it. He’s rather highly regarded across the political parties, so it wasn’t a political thing. He’s worried about what this ‘change’ will mean in the war on terror.

And John McCain is someone I want to take seriously on the topic of war. What did he say? That he’s worried the new Congressional leadership will force a re-deployment of trops out of Iraq now. “I don’t believe we can leave without severe consequences throughout the world,” he said. “These people are out of our destruction. We can’t leave before it’s over.” I can’t remember if he was the one who said it would be a ‘bloodbath’ if our troops pulled out now, but someone said it in one of these interviews.

John McCain said something else interesting about this mandate for change. “We’ll sit down now with our colleagues and draw up a plan going forward. It won’t be for a new agenda, but a return to our conservative principles.”

That’s the biggest message of the night, in my opinion. As I watched the returns come in, I noticed all the states that voted for a marriage amendment defining that traditional institution as being a union of one man and one woman. I noticed a number of Democrats who won on conservative principles, including pro-life and pro-family and traditional marriage. The party doesn’t matter, but the principles do, and the conservatives were winning the night in a number of races.

Even Democrat Rahm Emmanual, who is known as the ‘architect for change’ in his party, acknowledged that it will have to be a new direction for his party now, leaning more toward center than left, which means more conservative. He said this new government style will be a “forum” model.

Sounds good from here. The forum model is a good thing. Let’s see how well its architects open it up to the exchange of ideas. Especially the conservative ones that protect life and traditional values, the ones that got some of these candidates elected.