So what have we learned - after 6 years of corrupt rule and watching

[BR_Parkway]

the party in power get more corrupt, more beholden to the lobbyists, all in the name of their own personal gratification - what have we learned to keep our own leaders honest and working for the people who are putting them into office today (fingers/toes crossed)

Absolutely no doubt the current criminal cabal has to go, but I really don't want the lesser of two evils. I want above reproach Congressman and women to work in Washington for the betterment of me and all Americans, not just a select few rich people or a handful of corporations. They need to understand that, like Lieberman, incumbency is not a birthright - you work for us, or we tell you to hit the road.

I guess maybe that's what is on my mind during the next few years - holding our own to the fire, making sure that they continue to protect and defend the Constitution over their own re-election campaigns. Making sure that they never forget "We the People" put them into that office, and like Lieberman, incumbency is not a birthright - you work for us, or we tell you to hit the road.

Today marks the beginning of the repairs America so badly needs to get back on track. Today also needs to be remembered as the beginning of the End of the Age of Political Complacency. We came close to losing it, we have to guard even more so now.

We need a Federal law or Constitutional amendment demanding Voter Verified paper ballots.

We need a Federal law or Constitutional amendment against some of these dirty tricks the RNC is pulling to keep people from the polls.

We need real reform in the lobbying areas

We need real reform in the campaign cash machines

We need real reform in the news media consolidation

And if we don't get it - like Lieberman, incumbency is not a birthright - you work for us, or we tell you to hit the road.

[More Than A Feeling]

1. Our government, our responsibility.

We've learned not to rely on the dominant media to hold politicians accountable. They are in the bag even more than their subjects. After all, nobody voted for any journalists. So we help them out by pushing them to focus on what's really important.

We've learned that we can't rely on establishment political figures or single-issue groups to hold their colleagues accountable (cough, Joe Lieberman, cough).

We've learned that the only true check on the executive is not allowing the bad ones to be elected in the first place, because once they are there, they can gather more and more power to themselves, and it is even odds or better that they will go largely unchallenged.

Finally, we learned that you have a democracy with the citizenry you have, not the citizenry you wish you had. Rather than giving up on our fellow citizens as hopeless, we can and have helped to change hearts and minds, and we will continue to do so, until the "center" in politics is moved back to where it used to be.