Sorry, but I find your "we can't even try because..." to be very unsatisfactory. We can't even try WHAT, exactly? Perhaps a move to a specific would be helpful. What would you have the executive branch try (legislatively or otherwise) with respect to, say, closing Guantanamo Bay? Invite more Republican congresspersons to lunch? Play another round of golf with Speaker Boehner? Government by RSVP doesn't sound like much of a solution to a system failure to me. Which is not to say that public apathy, as you suggest, is not the root cause of the problem -- in which case, the young face a very bleak future indeed.
Yep, top on my list would be Guantanamo along with, repeal Bush tax cuts and any number of other promises that were made to me and millions of others in his FIRST bid for the job. You can mock the idea of a round of golf with Boehner, but if it were a regular occurrence, I guarantee you that there would be less gridlock. These are human beings and when you spend time with another person on a regular basis you develop a relationship which can be leveraged to action; action that fuels progress. It all starts with Government by RSVP as you call it. The one time I was excited about this presidency was when the administration arranged for both parties to be in the same room to hash out a health care bill. It didn't work out as hoped but I would love to see more of that. Laws and legislation happen as a result of compromises that occur belly to belly. That said, I am not terribly optimistic about our current system because the "normalized script" is what keeps you and your party in constant power. That said, I do think the Internet is going to provide increasingly efficient ways for citizens to steer the agenda and hold their elected officials accountable in real time. I see the system changing drastically in the not to distant future.We can't even try WHAT, exactly?
So we'd both like to see Guantanamo closed -- but still have no answer to WHAT we would have the executive branch in particular DO to make that happen. Same for repealing the Bush tax cuts. To the GOP, that cut would equate to a tax INCREASE, which of course is Satanic and a one-way ticket on the Hell Express. I don't think two more choruses of Kumbaya around the old campfire at a weekly White House weenie roast is going to do the trick there. I could, of course, be wrong. Please note that -I- don't have any ideas about what the executive branch should do either though -- short of staying engaged and not throwing in the towel. As for the system changing drastically in the not too distant future -- same question again: to WHAT, exactly? No shortage of dangerous possibilities in that direction! Better to try to resurrect constructive conservatism -- if it's not too late. And that, I think, is something rational American conservatives AND progressives can agree on.