CHANGE

You watch old movies or look at old photos and you notice that men’s fashions change ever so slowly.
Top hats and suits and shoes etc., have looked pretty much the same to the casual observer for many, many decades.

But if you go back far enough, differences do show up.

Top hats were taller and shorter, depending on the occasion. And they were actually worn by most men.

Lapels of suit coats changed in size and pant lengths and creases or whatever changed.

Ties changed in length and width.

And go back far enough, back toward the beginning of the 20th Century or beyond, and the changes become obvious.

Gradual change has also occurred in politics.

Twenty years ago or so I used to maintain with colleagues and friends that there were indeed differences between the Republican and Democrat Parties, that voting for the one was not the same as voting for the other.

But I would also argue that they had tremendous similarities as well, that neither one was really radically different from the other.
Both shared a number of core beliefs or perspectives, as on the importance of preserving this or that in American economics; in the Federal system; in the roles of the three branches of government, etc.

I think that today one could easily argue with assurance that great differences have emerged onto the national scene – but with, as should be expected, considerable complexity.

In some respects, the two national political parties, the Republican and Democrat, have retained similarities.
But the differences have become more pronounced, more significant, so much so that it is now arguable that adjectives must be attached to the two official names: those adjectives being conservative and liberal.

Years ago, the exact number I do not know, it was common to hear people in the political arena referred to as Republican, Democrat, liberal, or conservative. Seemingly intelligent folk would tell me that there were no such people as liberals or conservatives, that they were only Republican or Democrat, that the other two terms were really meaningless or at most , marginal.

Times have changed.

It can now be argued that the names Republican and Democrat are becoming increasingly meaningless, that the formerly allegedly meaningless or marginal terms conservative and liberal are now becoming the truly operative ones.

Indeed, I would argue that in some races at this time that it is more important to know the lib/conservative orientation rather than the Republican/Democrat if one is to vote intelligently.

And I fear that the same is true in another important arena: that of our national church structures.

If all you tell about someone or something is their generic title: Roman Catholic; Episcopalian; Methodist; Lutheran; etc., you don’t really say enough anymore.

One really must continue and attach the adjective, an adjective that is rapidly becoming or which has become a noun in its own right.