Hey Lisa — honestly, I’m torn. The perennial leftist riposte to your entreaty to join hands with centrists is to point out that social change is often achieved through the determined action of a few righteous people. This is no doubt true, so I’m always a bit reluctant to disregard hard-left standpoints, as they’re often promulfgated by people with infinitely more energy, intelligence and political acuity than this particular armchair observer.

But it does still feel as though hard-left attitudes still fail to acknowledge the innate conservatism of the average voter. Take, for instance, the vocal celebrations of McCain’s death this week…the criticisms of his legacy are fair, but do you really think you’re winning people over by dancing on such a fresh grave? I mean, I get it — the whole edifice of American politics is rotting, and your compatriots have got to get their individualist heads round policies of fairer redistribution before it’s too late. But damn, that’s not how you do it.