We need a new Perot

Over the next few years, we could use a Perot-like person who would challenge both the slavishly pro-greed Republicans and the crony capitalism of our Chicago machine government. The time seems right: Both Democrats and Republicans are losing support and, more important, respect from an increasingly alienated mainstream middle.

The rise of new political forms across both Europe and America reflects some of the new realities of contemporary media. With the rise of the Internet, the ability of large parties to use the press as their obedient propaganda corps has been greatly diminished. Similarly, establishment consensus on issues—for example, on climate change—is no longer easy to enforce. The Internet is too protean and easy to penetrate to be corralled by either the power of money or lobbyist influence-peddling.

The current political unrest also reflects a growing sense among the middle class in advanced countries, particularly those employed in the private sector, that the dominant parties are simply not interested in their fate. In the U.S., this view has been reinforced around the two biggest issues facing Congress this year, health-care and financial reform.