The other thing I would say is that I don't think we will be able to continue to think in terms of polarities and expect to get anything done. We have to step outside of our notions of "left" and "right", "conservative" and "liberal", "us" and "them", and "intellectuals" and "middle America". As long as we're being batted back and forth between existig polarities, we really aren't moving beyond the old and into what needs to come next.

We need to abandon all of our old ways of looking at things, and realize that it's not by fighting for old ideas that we will be able to correct the problems we face, but by finding and embracing new ways of thinking and doing things.