The headlines blare that 9/11 was “the day America changed.” But was it? Here, seven years later, America doesn’t seem changed. It does seem poised to elect as President an undistinguished man whose only accomplishment is his alleged celebrity–and whose only serious threat to winning is the celebrity of a woman perceived to “understand the plight of working moms.” Difference for the sake of difference is the order of the day–along with the usual calls for free health care, higher taxes on “the rich” and all the stale bromides of the socialist 1930s and 1960s. In foreign policy, America fought a war in Iraq which doesn’t seem to be making us any safer and, even if it does, hasn’t prevented us from openly promising to negotiate with terrorist nations such as Iran. Bush is disgraced for daring to use military force at all. Obama promises to be a real pacifist, the real thing–and is celebrated for it. No, America hasn’t changed. I don’t know what it will take for America to change; but it hasn’t happened yet.