Let's acknowledge that politics is failing us. What, though, do you suggest we do about that? Anyway, thanks for your thoughts; they help.

Is this not the politics of Barrack Obama, a political approach that proved incapable of surmounting the fabrications, trickery, and implacable hostility of the opposition?

Perhaps a better way to describe the competition, based on what we actually see now, is that it's animated by dishonesty and a soulless disregard for consequences to others.

Disrespect is one of the most powerful motivating forces in the world. That is the fundamental force that has generated the resurgence of fascist appeal that you are discussing.

It is conventional for cities and states to try alleviating a lack of housing by mandating and financing the construction of housing for moderate and low income families. I wonder if a better approach might not be for cities and states to finance the extension of efficient public transit to poorly served neighborhoods, and let private developers build housing there in response.