>If legislators and the grassroots are not optimistic anything will change, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's a major reason for the current state of affairs.
>Real change is going to need committed leadership.

I'm not trying to sound flippant, but you're assuming there haven't been attempts to change things at the grassroots level. It's also very difficult to do so *and* make a living and raise a kid.

Tribal politics has won.....here in the mid-Atlantic, you can't speak about the irresponsibility of some gun owners in a public setting without also being painted as a communist who wants to take away guns....and you can't speak about sexual harassment-like behavior at the middle school level being overlooked (because of the "demographics" of the instigator) without being branded a racist.

This is as far as I'll go with this, as someone from PA also reads from this site: both the liberal and conservative establishments are so firmly entrenched in so many parts, and wind up making veiled threats about the "power of government". Trust me when I tell you that some parents are afraid to take school administrations over the complete lack of basic discipline in public schools, for fear of retaliation. By summer we will be moving out of this area, and to some place a hell of a lot more quiet.

When Donald Trump gave his speech at the RNC convention in summer 2016, he said a number of things that (in isolation) I agreed with. He was absolutely correct that there was a swamp. I didn't vote for him because I didn't think he was the person to change it, but never imagined he'd take the idea of "swamp" and would go pro with it.