Starving the beast is the only way to fix it. The lure of money and power must be diminished in order to restore the rights and power back to the state and local levels as our Founders intended. For over 100 years the federal government bureaucracy has been engorged and the rights of states, cities and individuals have diminished. This is not coincidental, it is cause and effect. Any hope of restoring the balance of power between the individual, the states and the federal government, requires the compression of the centralized federal bureaucracy.

Our best leaders are currently busy being wildly successful in private industry. They wouldn't consider public service in the current poisonous environment. As such we're left with lesser individuals in search of power, money and fame making decisions that will affect this country and the world for decades to come. Any coincidence that the overwhelming majority of elected officials, lobbyists and staffers are lawyers and not captains of industry?

Update :
I guess I should also mention that I have zero hope that any federal government regression will happen in my lifetime. I fully expect the size and scope of the behemoth to grow and the rights and liberties of the citizenry to shrink. This is another reason I am a strong capitalist. I'll need every resource at my disposal to fight the governmental creep when it comes for my family and my property.


>Jake,
>
>I agree that the politica system there is badly broken. It's getting that way here too, real quick.
>
>But I do think there is another "solution" - fix it.
>
>Just trying to allow it less and less power is not a good answer in my opinion.
>
>
>
>>>>The NY Times is not partisan IMO. It is sometimes portrayed that way by those who don't like unfawning coverage.
>>>
>>>Mike, how about yourself? Are you not a 'non partisan', by chance?
>>
>>This will sound funny to most I'm sure, but I consider myself to be non-partisan. I will explain.
>>
>>I have equal loathing for both parties depending on the issue at hand. For the most part I find all politicians to be lying, power hungry, elitist know-it-alls who are one step above reality stars on the fame-whore ladder.
>>
>>Politics has become such an insiders game that one must sell their votes to the highest bidders at all levels to achieve elected status. Even the occasional revolution provides only a small window of opportunity for a disruption in the day-to-day grind before the machine assimilates them into the party fold or spits them out without funding their re-election bid.
>>
>>Is there any doubt as to why I do not want these people to have any more power than they already exert over us? The process of government has become such a vacuum of thought under a microscope of press that the great leaders among us rarely choose to participate. Instead they choose to pursue a career in the private sector where their lives are not under constant surveillance.
>>
>>The overwhelming power of the government must be constrained. The very idea of America as a free-market, capitalist, representative republic has been eroded for nearly 100 years with little change in direction and even less chance of retraction. I agree with Obama that the time for change is now, the problem is his idea of change is to continue the process away from our foundation at greater speed.