Thanks for the escapade into party politics, Bartholomew, I feel like you have a firm grasp on the obvious, however mundane... I'm sorry, I am just weary of appologists for this system. IMHO, the overconsumption of the world's biosphere IS a much more important problem than say, doling out military contracts evenly, or patting the right backs in the right order, for the right favors, at the right time, for the wrong reasons... Gore has indisputedly fooled us with his informed approach, and his book; but these are hard (not soft) issues, and are not really compromise material. He hasn't done anything!
Perhaps it is the compromises that got us here! Some issues don't compromise well,... We are so steeped in the two party systm, that we just don't know what to do... with REAL issues. The common ground between the two main parties IS one of our biggest problems, and all the carrers that have been built upon "communicating" between the two "sides" of the same corrupt system are the cement that holds the whole rotten thing together.
end of rant.