Well, Olbermann is quite the speaker, and I want to believe he is correct, but unfortunately his whole outlook relies on some image of American government that is basically a shared delusion. Our current leaders may have been terrible politicians by making the executive abuse of power for political purposes explicitly clear to anyone paying attention, but when was that power used for anything but politics? The only difference I see is that new ideologies are stiring in America and as long as the pres puts on that face (fundamentalism, neoconservatism) he no longer has the neccesity to put on the face of democracy as we once knew it. That ideological base has dwindled to the point you no longer even have to prove yourself constitutionally "American" to get yourself into a position of power. Maybe all of us here, all of us thoughtful and well read liberals and conservatives, understand that foundational myth of american government, understand its neccesity, even if the president often acts undemocratically, as has been happening ever since the president became a celebrity, even if the congress was too wrapped up in itself to ever get anything done, even if the courts swayed one way or another. The neccisity of the myth, of that face, of democratic progress was to maintain a culture of democratic values, so citizen's were living that ideology, treating dissent with respect and acting out of a sense of progress, not fear. But what has happened to that? Politcians sold out this country for themselves and other ideologies long ago. Can we pin it down exactly, was it Reagan's turning blatant self-interest into a political ethos? Clinton's selling out of the working classes by turning to corporate funding and signing Nafta? Or Bush's wholehearted embrace of a type of neo-facism in fundamentalism? If only patriotism, in its grandest sense, as the belief in the your country's potential for making itself and the world a better place, was still thought about by any one. The conservative's in power have embraced another ethos, and anyone who remains liberal can't justify our actions abroad, our lack of political concern for the poor of our own country, or the incessant empty celebrations of our corporations as they oppress and colonize the world, as having anything to do with goodness. That myth Olberman wants to reconstruct about America, about patriotism, that myth we need desperately as a country to find some sense of unity and goodness, has all but evaporated from our culture. Bush and Cheney just make it obvious.

However the Dems have allowed the Republicans to clearly win the stump for framing the debate in the media is beyond me. It is an absurd victory for the Republicans, as so many of us were raised in enviroments where Republicans were seen as distant and foreign, Monty Burns of the Simpson scheming in a dark tower. And while that is a satirical exageration, it is not far from the prevalent viewpoint of many Americans, particularly the working class. Republicans have been the party of wealth and self-promotion, democrats the party of workers and community, and of course wealthy bleeding hearts. And that is the truth, Republicans do not work hard like the working man works hard, they do not suffer like woman suffer at the hands of sexism or like minorities suffer at the hands of prejudice and limited economic opportunity. They ascend to victory in a suit wearing fake world of macho values and oppression of others disguised as mere rational self-interest. (Even Ayn Rand would take umbrage at the practices and lies of neocons, since they contribute nothing but vain self reproducing mediocrity and lecherousness to society.) They have no responsibility to a community and the values debate is just an ideological blinder (admittedly some new york media type liberals don't help themselves out here when they vainly export there own mediocre over sexualized culture to the rest of America in magazine/sitcom culture. Its empty so of course it is met with resistance.) Democrats, call them what they are, use your own personal experience, have you ever met a neocon, they are unbearable frat-boys, lets call them what they are, this is the Party of FDR and JFK and they are the party of Nixon and Reagan (I want to throw up everytime he is remembered as some sort of national hero by the press, what did he do but sell out the sick, support dictatorships, and reign over a period of cultural decadence and decay like the country has never seen). If you remember your values, community, freedom, justice, it should not be hard to win back the framing of this debate.