Beck, who's already thinking beyond Washington, has her eye on this summer's political conventions. We need a plurality of ideas. We need to break up the two-party system. With their affinity groups and spokescouncils and e-mail listservs, they have mastered the art of creating disorderly order and vice versa. It's a real achievement, despite the feeling of some that they've failed hugely in winning poor Americans and minorities to their sometimes remote, confusing cause.
Globalization is a big word and an even bigger enemy.
Maybe for people with everyday concerns like paying the rent and keeping the car gassed up, it's a little too big. There's the paradox. Their spirit recalls a conflict from the '70s that also pitted young idealists against a fearsome acronym. When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, moved by a belief that small is beautiful and big is hideous, set out to build a personal computer that would challenge IBM's great mainframes, their aim was not merely technical but also social. They wanted to bring power to the people.