I don't know if there's ever been a time -- at least in my lifetime -- when so many people were pessimistic about the future of our country.

Not just pessimistic, either. Downright cynical.

I don't blame one political party over the other. In fact, if elections have told us anything over the last 15 years or so, it's that American politics tends very much to be a case of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

Of course a lot of people would tell you that we never really meet the bosses at all, that the people pulling the strings are well hidden from public scrutiny. Because for all I disagree with the people who have been out there teabagging their little hearts out, I can certainly understand their frustration. The folks protesting this year aren't fabulously wealthy and they aren't -- for the most part -- right wing politicos. They're good ordinary Americans who are beginning to feel like they're getting screwed no matter which party holds power in Washington.

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They're the ones who play by the rules and are pretty damned unhappy to see that some people don't only don't bother to follow those rules, they change them whenever it works to their benefit. By the way, I first saw that video on the <a title="Hillbilly Politics" href="http://hillbillypolitics.com" target="_blank">Hillbilly Politics</a> blog, one I'm not ordinarily inclined to agree with. But just as I've been accused by some of my intellectual friends of having a blue-collar streak a mile wide, I find myself agreeing with people like that a lot more often than I do the faculty types.

Fifty years ago, a man with a good blue-collar job could support his family, own a home, buy a new car every few years and send his kids to college. That was an optimistic America, a country where folks honestly believed that their kids would have it better than they did.

I'm not sure that America still exists. So many blue-collar jobs have disappeared, and in many locales two incomes are required for a couple even to keep their head above water financially.

I wish I knew how we could get it back.

I wish I had the answer.

I don't.