9:14 PM
“The thing about democracy is that, if you pay a lot of attention to current events, you will find yourself in disagreement with "most people" a great deal of the time. This is because "most people" have other things on their minds. If you want to conclude from this that they're mostly "dittoheads," "attack dogs," or "underinformed", well, you're free to, even though this is exactly the kind of talk Karl Rove likes to see coming out of liberal mouths. Demonstrating patent contempt for one's fellows isn't really a very effective way of convincing anyone of anything."

"Politics is work. Part of the work involves being "happy warriors," including when we don't feel like it. A reliably salient characteristic of work is that if we don't do it, the opposition will."

-- PNH, in comments to this Electrolite post

Omit the second third sentence of the first paragraph if it rubs you the wrong way, and you'll still have a strong mission statement for how I wish more people participated in modern American politics--working hard for what they believe in without dismissing those who disagree with them.

(Updated as I apparently had a temporary inability to count.)