Watching the Republican Debates last night, I saw agreement that the “Occupy Wall Street”  (OWS) crowd was just a bunch of left-wing extremists.  My Democratic friends see the Tea Party as just a bunch of right-wing extremists.

Rather than viewing either movement as left or right-wing extremists, maybe we should look at them as a symptom — a symptom that “something” is wrong.

We didn’t lose our AAA credit because we are too liberal or too conservative.  Importantly, we did NOT lose it because of any inability to pay our debt.  Standard & Poor’s reduced our credit rating because it thought we had become ungovernable.  I suspect the left and right-wings extremists agree with this, concluding the “system” is not working for them.

Maybe, it is not a question of either spending or economic justice.  Maybe, both wings just want the government to lead, to be responsive, to make decisions . . . once again.  Neither is crying for more government or less government, just effective government.

I’m still puzzling over the recent comment by the President of Turkey, who compared democracy with a street car, saying “when you get to your stop, you get off.”  It is inconceivable to me that anything is better than a street car named democracy, but what does happen when that street car breaks down?  The first step would be to stop blaming each other!  After all, nobody else can see you clearly either . . .