>I think we need another president as bad or worse as Bush again (perhaps Romney or Palin) to put enough pressure on citizens to become actively engaged again and take to the streets.
You're all but saying that you don't think that people will take to the streets when a Democratic president is in power. I'd submit that Obama has been worse than Bush in a number of areas. In particular, he extended every major Bush-era power-grab, ranging from the Patriot act, to warrantless wiretapping. And then he piled more on top of that.
It might be more accurate to condemn both major US parties as loving power and war. If people won't condemn both, and prefer instead to remain tribalistic in their allegiance to one of the parties, then there's really not much hope for any change (not that I was ever optimistic about that).
You're all but saying that you don't think that people will take to the streets when a Democratic president is in power. I'd submit that Obama has been worse than Bush in a number of areas. In particular, he extended every major Bush-era power-grab, ranging from the Patriot act, to warrantless wiretapping. And then he piled more on top of that.
It might be more accurate to condemn both major US parties as loving power and war. If people won't condemn both, and prefer instead to remain tribalistic in their allegiance to one of the parties, then there's really not much hope for any change (not that I was ever optimistic about that).