Alpha 11 wrote:[

If Washington DC disappeared tomarrow, I wouldn't be sad at all. So sick and tired of both sides.

l:
A little political degression:
The problem is not Washington D.C., which is a fairly average city in its own right...extraordinary if you focus on the museums and civil institutions there.
The problem is with the electrorate who puts certain people in office...or threatens to put them.
That's the problem with democracy at its purest: it gets what it deserves when it comes to leadership.
The Founding Fathers had, and this is so fleetinglly mentioned, a more Hobbesian view in that they had a real fear of what a true direct popular election might bring, in the way of demagogues and scoundrels rising to power. The horrors of the French Revolution a few years later proved them right when the rabble allowed for the rise of the Committees of Public Safety and other horrid organizations.
To quote Shakespeare's
Jullus Ceasar: "'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."
Wanna change the world? Change peoples' minds.
And to return this thread to its original course:
Brutus: "But if we have Zentraedi Legions, the stars are OURS!"
Ceasar: "True, true, as long as our Triumvirate remains strong. So leave the knife outside the security area."
Brutus: ("...damn...I forgot about these '
metal detectors'...")