Those at the top would do better with a smaller share of a booming economy that elicits a positive politics than they will do with an ever-larger share of an anemic economy that fuels the politics of anger.

It's true that redistributing income to the needy is politically easier in a growing economy than in a stagnant one.

True patriotism isn't cheap. It's about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping America going.

If we give up on politics, we're done for. Powerlessness is a self-fulfilling prophesy.

There is a crisis of public morality. Instead of policing bedrooms, we ought to be doing a better job policing boardrooms.

If nothing is done to counter present trends, the major fault line in American politics will no longer be between Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives. It will be between the "establishment"--political insiders, power brokers, the heads of American business, Wall Street, and the mainstream media--and an increasingly mad-as-hell populace determined to "take back America" from them.