[PBzeer]

As I've been reading through some of the other threads tonight, as well as this one, I'm struck anew by one little item ..... government does not solve problems. At best, it mitigates or lessens them. At worst, it exacerbates or worsens them. What it does not do though, is solve them.

Solutions have to come from the bottom up. They aren't going to come from the top down. Until people realize they have to start in their own neighborhoods, and then, communities, and then act on it, nothing will change much, except by degrees.

Politics has become, not the process of governance, but an occupation. And it attracts people not for their ability to get things done, except tangentially, but their ability to get elected. What was the mantra for both parties during the primaries? It was who has the best chance to win the election. In neither party did any of the so-called serious candidate offer a coherent and consistent philosophy of governing, but rather, one of what will win the nomination. Politics, not of what they believe, but of what they think others believe. Politics of the pander.

So, in the end, we rarely get what we think we're voting for. And that's why I feel it has to start at the local level, if, and really, that is an iffy if, we want things to be different.