In the current political campaign in the United States, change is a major topic. However, more than change to this or that particular political issue, it is the very hermeneutic of change that is under dispute, so to speak. Just as interpretation of the Catholic Church’s Vatican II council has been addressed as rupture or reform, so the Democratic ticket is proposing change as clear break while the Republican ticket proposes a hermeneutic of reform.
Of course, the extent to which any given policy is “Democratic” or “Republican” and whether any proposed change is something new or a return an older fashion is very slippery. Nevertheless, the attitude to change in general is clearly different between McCain and Obama and replicates to a significant extent the tussle within the Catholic Church over its own attitude to change.