1. The struggle is, we don't all want to be in the same place which requires compromise to keep from eating each other.
2. We don't even agree on where we are....
3. If we cannot agree on where we are and where we are going then there is no how to get there.
The reason we did so well up until obama was we were willing to accept the no one is the expert but now every one knows everything about everything.There was a real transformation after 911 and thru the obama administration and that is what we need to come to grips with.What happened?
Both Parties used 9/11, caused primarily by holdover institutionalized incompetence from the Clinton Administration, to advance totalitarian measures ostensibly for our protection.
Many of those measures lie dormant, even though codified (such as parts of the Patriot Act, which allow summary confiscation of virtually anything).
Unfortunately that momentum has carried into sectors beyond national security, with the useless gestures with the full weight and gravity of law, to searching little old ladies in airports, a 3 oz. maximum on personal care products, empty your pockets, disarm completely, etc. Even the police shows on TV have the air of "you are going to be searched, whether you like it or not"--something intolerable just 20 years ago, as would have been being summarily handcuffed on a traffic stop.
Now, we aren't as free as we should be, I think we all agree on that. Some just don't want to be as free as others, but I think we can agree on a general direction we'd like to take things, Smaller (more Constitutional) Government, less regulation, and less infringement of our Civil Rights. We might not agree on how far that needs to go, but I think once people have a taste of Liberty, their thirst will not be quenched until they have more.