A short time ago, I told my eldest daughter, nine years old, that she was witnessing history unfold in the capitol buildings of Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and the like. I told her that our government has a built in fail safe system called checks and balances that would stop the over-reaching Republicans from forcing their ideology on everyone else. This, I said, is democracy in action. Watch and learn.

Today, I told her I was ashamed of these elected officials. I told her I apologize for being naive. And I told her I didn't understand what had happened in Wisconsin, as those checks and balances I spoke of were supposed to prevent what had obviously not been prevented. I told her I would find answers for her.

I must have spent 2 or 3 hours reading opinion after opinion, from people who ought to know, from pundits and dillitantes, from politicos and businessmen and women. Quite a few say this had been building for years, maybe even from the Nixon era and before. They say even if we get these thug-like bullies to back down THIS TIME, we simply can't win in the end, because we waited too long.

And then I thought of my daughter. I thought of how proud I was when I was telling her about the great system of government we have here. I thought about the fact that SHE and her generation are the ones that have to live in the world we are making. And I found the answer I promised her. I realized I was the problem. Me and the millions like me. I had elected all my life to let others "in the know" decide FOR ME how things would be. I had no right to complain.

But I COULD wake up.

I will never be invited to the Koch brothers' bar-b-cues. I'll never sit down for steaks with Dubya. I'll never be befriended by Governor Walker on Facebook. And that's okay. Because I WILL have the respect of my daughter.

I'm just an ordinary man. But there are MILLIONS of us. And guess what Koch brothers...guess what Limbaugh...guess what Boehner...Walker...Palin...

We're pissed. I'm involved now. And I hope millions follow me.