The civic affairs of the country. Let's begin there.

Do you remember set theory from 4th grade? How squares were rectangles and parallelograms but the reverse wasn't necessarily true?

The call of one's citizenship is hard to ignore without a convergence of circumstance and disinformation.

It describes, however, our largest subset. The percentage of the eligibles who don't vote is the largest voting block in the nation.

The cheap shot is to call it ignorant but the more accurate term might be ignoring. Ignoring the very premise of its existence - the nation's sovereign. (Or, as that poor dear Ms. Teenage America wannabe put it, "US Americans.")

What could cause over 40% of US Americans to drop out or stay uninvolved? At some levels, that's a fascinating question, but to set theory, it is the null set.

When you're talking geometric shapes, names of fruits popular in the pacific islands are irrelevant.

When deciding 'the direction of the future for our children,' to give Ms. Teen South Carolina the most charitable nod one can for insight, it would help if the conversation were firmly rooted in wise policies. But the subset of wise policies for the nation is forced to share with the unwise (which nowadays are just as capable of prevailing) and the determinants of those subsets are independent of voting records.

The multitude of advocates for unwise policies could be drawn almost exclusively from the class of non-voters, but thanks to the magic of unrelenting polling, the impact can wind up being greater than one might expect from a null set.

But when push comes to shove - when the Karl Rove's of this world start their tallying - they are foolish if they consider any but the likely to vote. That is why Bush's approval rating and his numbers in victory are so similar.

Would it were otherwise.

His abysmal numbers today are all it took yesterday. Go figure. It's the same Catch 22 which governs most Americans' diet for news.

The same way non-voters get to have a voice disproportionate to their citizenship, corporations responsible for plunging US Americans into plutocracy hold a disproportionate sway by owning most major media outlets. In the set theory of journalism, news outlets with a dog in the hunt are the null set. Sorry.

I've read highly critical articles in Rolling Stone but I've never seen an episode of Hardball with Chris Matthews which rises to the level of a Matt Taibbi exposé.

9-11 may have changed nothing, when all is said and done. It may have just provided cover.

If that strikes you as disgusting, I hope you are a voter. It will only take a disproportionately small number of like minded souls to affect the change which begins with "no mo'."

Yes, my fellow liberals, there is much to be said for principle. Only the gods know if this is its year. But we know from experience what happens when advertising techniques turn unwise policies into the nation's appetite.