It seems like the prevailing mood in America is one of distrust, disappointment, and disbelief.  Most national commentary takes one of two forms: sycophantic sucking-up to the Obama Administration or something bordering a told-you-so attitude.  Neither one is solving any of our problems.  There are the occasional rays of sunshine.

Peggy Noonan, in particular, has been quite good in taking the American pulse.  She sees America "bracing" herself:

The national conversation on the economy is frozen, and has been for a while. Republicans say tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. Democrats say spend, new programs, more money. You can't spend enough for the Democratic base, or cut taxes enough for the Republican. But in a time when all the grown-ups of America know spending is going to bankrupt us and tax cuts without spending cuts is more of the medicine that's killing us, the same old arguments, which sound less like arguments than compulsive tics, only add to the public sense that no one is in charge.

Which is pretty accurate: it seems like no one is "in charge."  And she's also right about how we can pull ourselves up out of this mess we've gotten ourselves into:

Just as our political regeneration will happen locally, in counties and states that learn how to control themselves and demonstrate how to govern effectively in a time of limits, so will our economic regeneration... The comeback will be from the ground up and will start with innovation. No one trusts big anymore. In the future everything will be local. That's where the magic will be. And no amount of pessimism will stop it once it starts.

Federalism, plain and simple, and how it was intended, holds the answer for us.  We'll have a better America when we have a better Cook County, a better Illinois.  The time is upon us, now.  If you're unhappy with where things are at in America, make them great, first, in DuPage County.  Or Orange County.  Or wherever you hail from.  This means either you - yes, you - running for office, or finding and supporting the candidate that is the next best thing.  Attend their fundraisers, even in these tough times.  Walk neighborhoods for them, handing out literature and help plant yard signs wherever you can.

I'll close now, so I can go and shovel yesterday's snow drifts.  And while I'm out there, I think I might also clear my neighbor's walk.  It's really a little thing, but true: our communites begin when we step out our front door.  And on the heels of that: we're the ones who are in charge.  Let's waste not another minute in fixing what only we can fix.