The need for changing

Last weekend I spent some time reflecting on the next political elections in Italy and in the USA. To do it, I searched the Web and I listened to the speeches of the left candidates for the two countries during their political campaign. I mainly focused respectively on Barack Obama for the US and Walter Veltroni for Italy.

In my opinion, even though Italy and American are quite different countries with different problems and concerns nowadays, the political speeches of these two candidates have many points in common and the thread of their discourse is quite the same. The key words for both of them are: CHANGE, NEW, DIFFERENT… Here are some sentences taken from Barack Obama political campaign' speeches in the numerous states of America:

• - "It is necessary to change the politics";
• - "Change: we can believe in";
• - "We're turning the page, we're ready to write a new chapter of American history";
• - "You spoke out for change with your votes and your voices";
• - "This time must be different;"
• - "We need a new direction: change is what is happening in America;"
• - "It is also about you, the citizens of Usa who can do the change;"
• - "Nothing can be an obstacle for voices calling for change;"
• - "We're one people, we're one nation, we're ready to write a new chapter in American history;"
• - "Let's go change the world"

Now, let's compare these sentences with some taken from Walter Veltroni's speech in Spello, the starting point of his tour and political campaign covering all the regions of Italy.

• - "Cambiamo l'Italia, non il governo."
• - "Guardiamo negli occhi l'Italia e le diciamo: Comincia un tempo nuovo, il tempo del cambiamento."
• - "Mi candido per cambiare il paese."
• - "Non cambiate un governo, cambiate l'Italia. Cominciamo a farlo insieme. Trasformiamo questo nostro paese"

As you can see, the two candidates point to the need for changing the current situation of the countries and, especially, of their politics. There's an idea of transformation, of a new course or a new direction that has to be taken in order to improve the situation and, as Barack Obama said in one of his speeches, "heal this nation and restore our moral standing in the world". Obviously, going deeply into the two candidates political programmes, the main concerns are quite different because it depends on the crucial problems affecting the two countries nowadays. As far as America is concerned, the main problems now is the war in Iraq (linked with the issues of safety and security), the need for universal health care and the opportunity for any family to afford sending their children to college and provide them a higher education. Listening to some speeches, I'm quite confident to say that Obama's ace in the hole is his opposition to the war in Iraq: he promised that if he becomes President... “I'll bring this war to an end in 2009 and I'll bring our troops home”. In my opinion, Italy main concerns are quite different because there are a number of things that have high priority over other things, for example the issue of taxes and tax evasion, the necessity to pay less if everybody pays its part, the need to reduce costs in the public field. However, even though the points of the two political programmes are different, the need for changing and starting something new is the element that associates the two political campaigns. In addition, in both countries the two leaders talk of change that it is not only up to the government and its leader but that it is has to be shared with the citizens -it is a shared and common willingness- in order to achieve together the goals that are necessary to restore the countries. This idea is asserted vigorously in Barack Obama's motto: "YES, WE CAN" where “we” implies the President himself and all the citizens as one people and one nation.