AUSTIN, Texas -- I have been collecting material for a series of columns on the peppy topic, "How Do We Fix This Mess?" The news is dandy in that there are a lot of a sound ideas being passed around. Really serious messes, like the one this country is in, do not, in my experience, have simple, definitive solutions. And if they do, such solutions are politically impossible. We are looking for progress, not perfection, so anyone who tells you the entire tax code should fit on a postcard is a bona fide, certified, chicken-fried moron.

But listening to the Democratic debate on what to do now, it seems to me some of the brethren and sistren are asking the wrong questions. The question is not, "How Do We Win?" That's a technical question that comes after, "What the Hell Can We Do About This Disaster?"

I personally think some good ideas and a plan should come first -- and to this end, let me chime in on a note of agreement with some Actual Moderates, William A. Galston and Elaine C. Kamarck, a couple of Clintonites still carrying on in that old Third Way that was good enough for Bill C.

Dear Mr. Fitrakis and Mr. Wasserman:

I am writing in response to your recent article.  I am not a "leftist."  However, I was an election protection attorney in  Toledo and spent four days there during the 2004 election.

I saw, first hand, the stealing of an election.  I saw the long lines, the broken machines , the challenged voters, the misinformation, and more.  Like you, I do not understand why the press did not extensively cover what happened and still do not understand why the American people, and especially the Democrats, aren't doing anything about it.

We can't "unelect" W, but we darn well better do something to prevent the Right Wing from hijacking all future elections!

Amanda D. Howland, Esq.

I think the answer lies in the body politic of the Democratic ( so called ) Leadership Council.

I remember reading someplace that Felix Rohatyn said.....fifteen years or so ago...

A great infusion of extreme right money was being poured into Republican coffers, and the Repubs were "following the money." At taht point, the democrats gave up being the opposition party, and smelling all that money, learned the financial advantage of SHARED POWER with the Rebublicans.

The DLC now, as I write this, gets vast monies from the extreme right.....

Only the grass roots ( old Deaniacs, faithful to Howard dean and his vision) keep any hope of taking our country back....We cannot and must not follow the DLC'ers.....the grass roots will have to put of their own candidates , support them, and get them elected.

Dear Losers,

Your capable of reading and writing, but not of reason - - a very seriously demented article. Your ideas lost - - yes LOST - - in the domain of public opinion.  Americans don't want the intolerant ideas you spew.  I love seeing liberals literally go crazy - - time to get professional help.  

Mike Palvic
Carmichael, CA

As the New Orleans disaster recedes from the headlines, citizen activists face a choice. We can focus exclusively on other newer issues. Or we can work to make the disaster one of those key turning points with the potential to transform American politics. For this to happen, we need to consciously create new dialogue, reaching well beyond the core converted.

If we think back to the 9/11 attacks, which have shaped American politics ever since, a brief window of critical reflection opened up in their immediate wake. Middle East experts critical of U.S. policies had op-eds in our largest newspapers and appeared on network TV. Ordinary citizens mourned the victims, while asking what would make the attackers so embittered they'd be willing to murder 3,000 innocent people. The next day, when I spoke about possible root causes, with even more frankness than usual, at a community college in the overwhelmingly Republican suburbs just north of Dallas, the response was amazingly receptive.

But by a few weeks later visible public questioning had largely ceased. Most Americans accepted the Bush administration's definition of a war of absolute