From : http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/world/26gates.html?_r=1
Radical thinking. Radical also when people like Former Secretary Gates says things like :
'"I do believe that we are now in uncharted waters when it comes to the dysfunction in our political system--and it is no longer a joking matter." former Defense Secretary Robert Gates told an audience two weeks ago at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia, where he received the Liberty Medal for national service. "It appears that as a result of several long-building, polarizing trends in American politics and culture, we have lost the ability to execute even the basic functions of government much less solve the most difficult and divisive problems facing the country. Thus, I am more concerned than I have ever been about the state of American governance."
From : http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/congressional-dysfunction-begins-to-spook-old-pros.php?ref=fpb
It's one thing to look at the tea party and dismiss it as a bunch of angry white guys and to do the same to the wall streeters as a bunch of unemployed hippies.
But when very reasonably intelligent people like Former Secretary Gates and others start to say these things - normal people like us who do own homes, work for our living, pay taxes better start listening too. And very, very closely.
Just like the 'movements' demand responsibility form those they protest against, the movements themselves must be responsible.
'What gets lost in the pendulum swing of populist protests is a sense of citizen responsibility to actually solve problems in a democratic republic—defining the common ground that exists and then building on it. In the current polarized political environment, that just might be the most revolutionary idea of all'.
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