Love the device of pivoting off Pat Buchanan's discourse. He's a perfectly fearless voice of early 20th C Euro-American ethnic imperialism. And, as an American, I admire Plitnick's effort to lead the reader to stand outside of his or her identification with a nation-state. Power is derived from the people, but what are we to do about the cruel and absurd design of its present forms. Do we just reach for the popcorn and watch the crash in HD? Or what?

We need to see our agency. Faith is the source of a belief that the work of building more equitable institutions for the human community is joyful.