Reply #54: The Obama dilema was well described in Ellul's "The Political Illusion" decades ago.

[Distant Observer]

The Political Illusion by Jacques Ellul, 1972, actually lays out exactly what we Obama supporters find holds today -- a change in the Leadership does not much impact the modern systems of national interests, governance and rule, which are rather managed by bureaucracies and layers of information control than span Presidencies and over-rule individual leadership decisions.

And share his conclusion that "all facets of political activity as we know it today are a kaleidoscope of interlocking illusions, the most basic of which are the illusion of popular participation, popular control, and popular problem-solving in the realm of politics."