Crossposted at Daily Kos.
I don't think there's enough dialogue in this country.
You have to excuse me. I'm a peacemaker by temperament, and I'm a trained mediator, so I have a thing about dialogue. Let me explain.
There's not enough dialogue in the American culture. Between leaders and voters. Between party factions. With anybody. But I want to talk about politics and civic participation.
We are starved for real political dialogue in this country. The Party and our government is this separate behemoth. The public feel isolated, alone, not fully informed. People feel talked at, manipulated, condescended to, ignored. And we are left to speculation and gossip, and we feel they don't want our input, they just want us to just do what they say. "Give us your money and your vote and shut up."
I've got several dialogue stories below the fold:
· Big Coal's PR Spending Spree (desmoinesdem)
· IA-03: Former college wrestling coach to challenge Boswell (desmoinesdem)
· Tea Baggers Target Gore... (Cliff Schecter)
· Stimulus Watch (Jerome Armstrong)
· CREW seeks ethics inquiry of Bachmann (desmoinesdem)
· Did IRC help? (MN Campaign Report)
· 5 Worst cities for urban youth (desmoinesdem)
· "The Bishops' Huge Financial Stake in Stupak-Pitts" (desmoinesdem)
· Conservative group wants FEC to override state laws on robocalls (desmoinesdem)
· URGENT: Call these House Ds Saturday to oppose Stupak amendment (desmoinesdem)
· WI-08: Wingnut plans to run as "conservative independent" (desmoinesdem)
· 50 percent of southerners say Obama better president than Bush (desmoinesdem)
