Power Hungry Politics

New York Times Magazine writer Matt Bai and author of a must-read book for Democrats, "The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics," recently provided an apt description of American politics for the last sixteen years. Democrats would be wise to remember "The real trend line in our politics - from Ross Perot and Bill Clinton in 1992 to Obama this year - speaks not to any change in governing philosophy but to a growing frustration with incumbency and dogma, a sense that both parties are more concerned with perpetuating their own power than they are with adapting government to a fast-changing world. Voters aren't really identifying more closely with one party or another when they periodically revolt; they are simply defining themselves against whoever happens to be in charge at the moment."

As someone who believes, wholeheartedly, in the importance of voting and the power of the little guy to effect change, the above statement really rang true for me. I am not interested, as a voter or a citizen, in furthering the power of one group over another. My loyalty, ultimately, is to my country, not one party over another. I am excited to see what we can achieve in the next four years. And I really have hope that we will see change, as a proactive response to the world in which we operate, rather than a reactive response to what "the other guy" has been doing.