The candidate of the future who can win will be of unassailable character and compelling charisma. His political or diplomatic expertise, his personal stance on morally-charged issues, his knowledge of current events, and all other objective qualifications are irrelevant if people vote from the heart - often against their best interests - as George Lakoff claims. The main qualification - perhaps the only qualification - of that candidate will be the ability to be responsive to the constituency.

What constituency? Consider the fact that a hard-fought election is won by a bare majority of the small minority of eligible voters who actually vote, and then try to convince me that we have majority rule combined with protection of minority rights as intended by the Founding Fathers! Consider the growing distance in this country between right and left wing, between rich and poor, between pacifist and terrorist, or between the two extremes along any given spectrum. Those at the opposite extremes of any spectrum might as well be living on different planets! How can they hope to inhabit the same nation?

The time has come to admit that this particular replication of the Great Experiment of rule of the people, by the people, and for the people has failed. Even though the Experiment itself should not be abandoned, we must look for solutions that take into account the cultural revolution represented by the information explosion and the advent of the cybernetic age. Concurrent with the decline of the political Moderates and the economic Middle Class is a growing dissatisfaction with the federal government on the part of radicals and neo-cons, rich and poor. Consider the following:

In today's AlterNet, Amanda Griscom Little reports on a convention of mayors who are not willing to wait for the federal government to address the issue of global warming. Rather, they will do what it takes to respond to the needs of their local constituencies to reduce the impact of this impending ecological disaster and arrest the process before our planet becomes uninhabitable.

My personal political views are as eclectic as my personal spiritual beliefs, but I applaud the efforts of the mayors cited above. And in an attempt to pre-empt the accusation that I am anti-Christian that may be inspired by the following, I'd like to place before you a sign-off by one of my forum correspondents at the Kucinich forum: "Annoy a conservative. Live like Jesus." Nor is anything in the following meant as a blanket condemnation of everyone involved in government.

In a recent mass mailing, I publicized the findings of the World Tribunal on Iraq and tried to show how individuals could take action to give this "august international judiciary authority" the recognition that our need for globalization requires. My personal belief is that the currently established nations and governments are obsolete dinosaurs, and ours happens to be a very powerful and consciously self-perpetuating dinosaur. However, the other end of the spectrum (sometimes called "Christianists" instead of "Christians") is also fed up with the actions of this administration - but for the opposite reasons.

Cory Burnell founded Christian Exodus in 2003. This group's interpretation of the founding fathers' intent was that they never meant to separate Christian principles from government but rather to separate religious practice from federal control. They maintain that the federal government operates outside its delegated powers in the areas of education, religion, abortion, domestic behavior, intrastate communication, intrastate commerce, taxation, welfare, healthcare, gun regulation, and a host of other subjects. Most powers concerning these topics are reserved to the States under the 10th Amendment. They see a Christian/Republican-controlled federal government that continues to ignore their agenda and that has strayed too far to the left in light of their claim that almost 50% of Americans identify themselves as Christian fundamentalists.

While progressives use names like Repuglican for what they view as the ultra right-wing party, the Christian Exodus calls them RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). They do not advocate violence, but rather seek to concentrate their numbers geographically and take over on the local level using the democratic process. Their action plan recognizes that there are too few of them to take over the country, so they have targeted two undisclosed counties in upstate SC in which to begin their mobilization and infiltration. They plan to be in control in these counties by late next summer in time for the '06 elections.

Why upstate SC? While they believe they are already well beyond critical mass, they seek a compatible infrastructure and ideology for an easy first victory. In evaluating their potential for success, they study the following factors: voter turnout in primary elections, voter turnout in general elections, moral nature of the electorate, cost of living/housing, economic and employment opportunity, Christian educational choices (including home school networks), and availability of churches.

When they get to the state level, they feel they can safely ignore federal government attempts to intervene. If not, secession is an option that is no longer whispered behind closed doors or celebrated in re-enactment plays on Confederate Memorial Day. "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins. (Revelation 18:4)" Clearly, legalized sodomy and abortion are only two examples of the anti-Christian depravity of the leftist bias of government.

Christian Exodus will no doubt find support from the Seacoasters, a non-denominational Christian sect with headquarters in Greenville, Columbia, Charleston, and Irmo, SC, and Savannah, GA. "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builder labors in vain. (Psalms 127:1)" Is this a clear enough statement by this group that only government based on fundamentalist Christianity is valid? Support will also be forthcoming from the Riverbluff Baptists, another upstate SC group, who emphasize discipleship. "To fail to allow our Christian testimony to influence every area including the public arena is to deny our very nature. If the Christian worldview is truly to be applied to every area of life then the political area is included."

Until my innocence was shattered at the July 17 Forum at the UU church in Columbia, SC, I thought that the John Birch Society and the Ku Klux Klan had been immobilized with the demise of George Wallace. At the Forum, I was assured that nothing could be farther from the truth, and my own research has confirmed the assertion. The difference between the groups seems to be not one of ideology but rather of socio-economic class. The former group is wealthier and favors using the greed and corruption of those in power to work through the legislative process, while the latter is less wealthy and favors turning back to the agrarian lifestyle and working at the grass roots level. Apparently, Articles of Secession are already drafted and waiting in the wings in both TX and AZ.

There is a slogan that has been around for a long time: "Think Globally, Act Locally" What do we mean by that? More important, who owns that slogan? I believe it belongs to both ends of the spectrum. I believe that our current notion of countries and states is obsolete. How literally shall we interpret our claim to be members of humanity and citizens of Earth?