IMAGINE HOW DIFFERENT EVERYTHING WOULD BE IF WE AMERICANS HAD FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Atrios, responding to an Ezra Klein report on the apparent state of the budget talks:

People on the intertubes can debate whether Obama is incompetent or Obama is getting exactly what he wants while blaming Republicans. I honestly don't much care, because as long as it's entirely an inside game, backroom deals made between millionaire old guys, there really isn't much for the rest of us to do about it.

For all I know the inside game, instead of the bully pulpit, is the best way to get exactly what Obama wants - whatever that is - but it's a crappy way to explain to people why they should vote for you or your party.

In theory, of course, it doesn't have to be "entirely an inside game." It wouldn't be "entirely an inside game" if a large number of Americans had class consciousness and were out in the streets demanding some sacrifice from the greedy, and some limit on the sacrifices required of the rest of us.

And while it would be nice if the president used the bully pulpit to rally us against the Republicans, the fact is that we don't need to wait for his permission, or the permission of any other elected official -- we're legally entitled to decide on our own that we have grievances that need redressing.

I know that there really isn't any such broad-based class consciousness in America today. And I know that, even if there were, it's hard to imagine our outrage making any difference in a society where cash rules, and where Roger Ailes acts as the entire news media's assignment editor, valorizing the rage of the right while portraying anger from any other direction as nothing more than a freak show.

But in theory we could try. And in fact, until we take our own side in the argument, everything's just going to get worse and worse.