Reply #39: I agree that this thread is very depressing, but it is a combination of many things.

[Mass]

I have been political for ever, so I am not going to bail out now at nearly 50. Politics is about my life, my kids' life and the life of those I care and those I do not know.

However, there is a lassitude that comes from not being heard, by seeing our leaders always making the extra step to appease the other side and taking us for granted, and while this will not make me bailout, it may lead some of these new people that Obama has brought in because he thought he was different from not only Bush, but the Clintons and those who led the Democratic Party during the last 20 years. It is a little bit naive to put so much trust in one individual and I think many people missed the point that drawn me to Obama despite so many issue differences: the aspect always repeated that he was not the important thing, we were.

The point is that the "we were" requires a lot of work from people. The US have had a Republic for more than 200 years, but they seem to have forgotten what that means, in particular that it means that more than voting every two years. This is why I was not outraged by the primary challenge to Kerry (I was outraged that nobody of value challenged him). Democracy requires work from his citizens, and it is something that is easy to forget, both by people who are disabused AND by people who are blind supporters of a political man. Democracy requires that you make what is important to you clear. We will not get our way each time, but we can be sure that we will NEVER get it if we do not make our ideas clear.

So, my answer has two points, no bailout because it is about us, but also no adulation of our leaders and silent acceptation of what they do: it is the duty of a citizen to speak out. (Just to be clear, nobody here has told me to stop speaking out, but the spectacle of DU-GDP is a very good picture of what I mean).