“Right is still right even if nobody’s doing it. And wrong is still wrong even if everybody’s doing it” – Texas Ranger credo

American democracy has acquired some odd conventions. Candidates and office holders appear no longer to formulate independent thought. Advisers keep them on-message and guide their policies. President George W. Bush famously brags that he does not need a poll to tell him how to think. And he does not. He has Karl Rove, a political savant who runs nightly surveys and deconstructs the results to find helpful issues and opinions. And then the president knows how to think.