the "everything american sucks totally" minority, clearly hasn't, doesn't, and will unlikely ever work to convince americans to create democratic change, given that most americans, if not all of them, would rather be here than anywhere else...
as is probably the case with those on this list, who are already here, being very critical, but going nowhere else except to visit or vacation...
am I wrong? who's leaving for one of these better countries? and staying there, not just visiting to come back and say how much better it is than the states?
very difficult to convince people that change is necessary when you tell them that their country - meaning them - has absolutely no redeeming value. Bennet is a major asshole, but there are very decent citizens of greater intellect - if given a chance to exercise it - who are personally insulted by much of what passes for left criticism...and that includes much that I say in my columns, when I haven't made it clear that it is the institutional organism that is most diseased, and not the fault of the individual cells, until and unless they become conscious of the larger illness...
social criticism is tough enough, if you are about making changes and not just making points, but it's toughest when we insult the society, rather than inspire-educate-agitate it in a more positive way...which is difficult to do if you insist that this country is the worst, a living hell, etc, which almost automatically get the response "so why are you here"...maybe some of us should ask ourselves that question...
fs