I really hope it wasn't an englishman that started this thread.

Whoever started this thread is right on all accounts. Everything that needs to be changed in this country has to be done on a local level. Most people in this country don't know this, we are therefore politically naive.

If we are stupid, then we need to go to the local PTA meetings. If that doesn't work, then we need to go to the town hall meetings. The next step is the state governments and the federal government.

We Americans only worry about the presidential elections. Almost all of our presidents have come from our local governments. If we can clean up our local governments, the federal government will follow (as illustrated in the progressive movement at the beginning of the century.)

Most Americans (and everyone I know) believe that they have no power over the government. That is politically naive. The government was created for the people, by the people. Most people are just to lazy to regularly attend town meetings and vote for local politicians. Americans are more concerned with who's dealing with congress ( the president) than who's actually in congress (the senators and the representatives).

We, as a country, are arrogant. We have enough food production to feed the entire world; we have enough petroleum products to power the entire world; our cultural and ethnic diversity has given us the technology to do just about anything. We have bailed out many countries, most notably Japan and Germany right after they started the second world war (the above mentioned Truman Policies.) I think we have cause to be a little arrogant.

Where does the rest of the world get their defense technology from? Who's men are standing in the front lines when a global catastrophe is about to take place?

--CS