The battles over health care, environmental regulation, taxation and legal reform all show that the interests who finance political campaigns can win large and unfair advantages in shaping legislation, and also in blocking it.  Ultimately, political reform—particularly in the financing of campaigns—is the precondition of all other serious reform.  But private institutions and individual politicians also need to act.  We’ve already seen how the modern media shape the public debate.  Television, radio, newspapers [now the internet] must find better ways of drawing citizens into the political argument.  Ultimately, democracy will always come “from below,” from communities themselves taking responsibility for themselves.  If America is to experience a rebirth of its civic culture and democratic values, it will occur because citizens decide to create their own civic space and force onto the political system seriousness and civility it now lacks.  (310-11)

This does, indeed, include talk radio, which is creating opportunities for citizens to make their voices heard.  But it must also include an effort by mainstream journalism to highlight the importance of the democratic debate and to draw more citizens into it.  Above all, those media that have traditionally been serious about reporting and commenting on politics and government cannot use the public’s current dismay with politics as an excuse to abandon their responsibilities to give serious coverage to the democratic enterprise.