Most Americans have lived their lives watching politics as though it were a bad TV show.  They have found it boring and distasteful.  They've preferred to think it doesn't matter.  For thirty or forty years, the shift of power from local and state governments to the federal government has been insidiously gradual.  It has been just gradual enough to comfortably ignore.  The Constitution has not been broken so much as it's been eroded.  The rot has long been with us.  We have gotten used to it.  We've even spawned a couple of generations of genteel conservative pundits and columnists who've lived quite well by eloquently complaining — and doing nothing.  There has always been enough normalcy left to allow ordinary people to mow the lawn, save for a vaguely plausible retirement, and watch a football game or two.  Now and then, our leaders have even gotten...(Read Full Article)