After the Revolutions, Reality

Voters, having grudgingly learned to accept the natural limits on government's ability to change society, are perhaps now beginning the second half of the job, which is learning to accept the natural limits on society's ability to change government. Voters, having grudgingly learned to accept the natural limits on government's ability to change society, are perhaps now beginning the second half of the job, which is learning to accept the natural limits on society's ability to change government. Washington will change constantly, but the nature of its change will be primarily bottom-up and client driven, rather than top-down and voter driven. American voters and politicians are hardly helpless; but they have much less real control over the size, composition, and mission of their government than the civics books promise. In the electorate's current mood may lie the beginning of a more productive and less pathological relationship between Washington and its public.