Unfortunately, a practical reformer like Barack Obama invariably faces the thorny reality that it's the people with the real money who are the source of most of society's real problems. The crazy talk from Republican's about Obama's "socialist" inclinations cannot hide the fact that the real "cash for clunkers" program turns out to be the ongoing bipartisan bailout of Wall Street by the American public.
After a year of hopeful expectation in the Obama presidency, a disappointed Huffington now concludes, "change is going to have to come from outside Washington." She's right about that. We need to rediscover what leaders of earlier movements for civil rights, peace in Vietnam, the eight-hour day, and the right of women to vote came to understand--the power of the street.
Now that's the kind of change we can really believe in.
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