A lot of ways. Things have gotten both better and worse and there always getting both better and worse. Thats what makes it so frustrating to be in and around politics. There is no easy argument to make about the direction of change. Theres always a cost of progress and theres always a cost to resisting progress. To your more general question, it does seem to me that in a lot of ways we are having too many of the most important fights in our political life at the national level. Part of what i mean by saying our politics need to be decentralizes that some of these arguments need to be had by people who are looking at one another. That is surely one way to get around that divide. Its a lot easier to sustain in the abstract then when its you and your neighbor. I cannot for the life of me see who has to decide who gets to go to what bathroom in the white house. I just dont think its necessary to do that. It would be a lot easier to live with one another if we didnt have to have one answer