fabulous essay.

John Dewey was quoted saying, "Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of the imagination." it seems that the quote is equally valid when the word science is replaced with politics. unfortunately, because great advances and successes require change, and change decreases the hold of the professional politicos, it is something they must try and suppress until it is apparent they cannot succeed.

i disagree with Skeptic06 about 'ordinary people' and experts. working in the scientific and medical fields, i can attest firsthand to the remarkably unwise things that people do, against their own judgment, because they were so instructed by a less-than-qualified expert. i suspect most tradesmen have observed similar things.

i think the problem is that Skeptic is equating expert and elite, two things that do not necessarily go together. people established as experts often receive less, not more, critical evaluation, i think because we have been raised not to question our elders/betters/experts. this phenomenon has actually led one specialist (Sackett DL) to propose tongue in cheek that specialists be required to change specialties ~every 10 years to improve creativity in the medical fields and keep people questioning one another.

in medicine, we have our students to question us, to push us to improve and to see things from another angle. in politics, we have grassroots campaigns and independents. unfortunately, as Matt points out, Dems as well as the GOP have fallen so deeply under the spell of their own rhetoric and pollsters that they can apparently no longer hear the questions, saddling us instead with ridiculous monstrosities like Lieberman.

ah well, that is why we have Matt, no?