Thumped

GWB's runaway plutocracy has been lassoed by the public.
They have sent in the Dems to be a counterweight and to
probe the administration's conduct. Both parties have
power now, particularly if the VA senate seat holds up
for the Dems. The voters in their wisdom have created
a horse race for 2008. The pundits are left to analyze
it all to a fare thee well.

What is left unanswered is what kind of political shape
the public is in. Folks across the fence have become so
antagonized and frustrated with each other that talking
politics and political ideas has become a no-no. Too
many people out there have become closeminded and that is
a bad thing, as Martha might suggest.

I'll feel better when people start talking again about
these issues and when politics can return as a fit
subject in the community. The great divide started with
the Johnson / Nixon years and has widened and intensified
ever since. We are at the point where it is sensible
to ask whether differences on the major issues are so deep
that they cannot be reconciled. If so, that would be a
bitter and miserable outcome.

While the parties duke it out in DC and try to gain
ascendency, I'll be watching to see if folks can be moved
to sit around the table and again discuss the issues
in a context of all realizing we are in the same large
boat.

Sermon over.