Finished Mike McCabe's Blue Jeans in High Places, which looks at the breakdown of our policical system through the lens of Wisconsin, where we have gone from being squeaky clean to one of the most corrupt states in the country. From Bob LaFollette, William Proxmire, and Gaylord Nelson to Scott Walker.

McCabe argues that just as we broke out of the Guilded Age, with its robber barons and timber tycoons by means of the Progressive movement, we can break out of our current oligarchy by means of a new paradigm that does not rely on the existing political parties but also does not rely on a third party. Maybe, perhaps.

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Blue Jeans In High Places

Americans believe in hard work and self sufficiency. We also believe in looking out for the welfare of others. We believe in a free market, not a market manipulated to favor the most politically privileged participants in our economy. The vast majority of us would like to see one-for-all economics—policies ensuring that the fruits of a vibrant economy benefit the whole of society. We see the need for both rural revitalization and urban renewal. Instead of subsidizing global conglomerates, efforts to stimulate the economy should emphasize community-based small enterprise development, empower local entrepreneurs and cooperatives, and enable us to one again grow together rather than grow apart. We believe supply-side economic theory has it wrong. Demand, not supply, is the primal driver of economic growth. Trickle-down policies have been a miserable failure, never producing more than a trickle for the masses and producing grotesque economic inequality and the slow but steady extermination of the middle class.

Deep down (the American voter) understands—and so do you—that it is illogical to expect clean air and clean water to come from dirty politics. It is unrealistic to think that policies promoting health and wellness will spring from a sick government. Work for the jobless never will be on the minds of ethically impaired and morally bankrupt professional politicians whose primary concern is their own job security.

A big hump we have to get over is the mindset of being divided. I repeat: The people of Wisconsin and America are not as hopelessly divided as the political pundits like to claim. A great many of us have a great deal in common.