"Juicy question! Now let's squeeze that juice out. I don't know why I'm running so hard with the juice metaphor. Is it good? I don't know. But it makes sense. It's real. Our political system is so officially corrupted by money and bullshit that the lack of faith in it is quite reasonable. When members of congress spend up to 70 percent of their time fundraising and bending to the will of the increasingly wealthy, it's natural to be like, "nah, i'm just gonna go over here and plant this here garden on my neighbor's roof." I think it's a sad fact of life. I think the work of folks like Larry Lessig with http://mayday.us is a great step, and so I've supported things like that. As for part two, yes indeedy. One of the reasons I joined Pivot TV and TakePart Live (plug: http://takepart.com/live) is I consider it "news that gives a damn." The idea is to marry entertainment, information, and ACTION. Giving people something to DO (other than get mad) is an important way to close the democracy..." - @baratunde