Agreed.
Unfortunately, politicians get elected, not White Knights.
White Knights make lofty speeches promising followers and true believers the moon and the stars, knowing they'll don't have a snowball's chance in hell of ever coming close to being elected and will never be called to deliver on all those promises of 'fixing' things, quickly...in a representative democracy.
A compromising politician such as George W. Bush does the political balancing act and attempts to appeal to a wide number of the electorate. Bush has no mandate to make sweeping governmental changes and his every move, large or small, is opposed strongly by the Democrats, who have a Senate majority and use it, and many conservatives who bad-mouth everything Bush does, just to prove how pure and constitutional they are. It's a game.
Meanwhile, Bush has the heavy responsibilities of the presidency in a time of war. He gets it from both sides and sometimes I cannot tell the difference between the Democrat criticism and vilification and the self-righteous 'conservatives' that routinely bash and mock a man trying to do his job.
With 270 million people in a country the size of America, no president will ever please everyone so most of the vilification of Bush is predictable. Many folks here just seem to hate all politicians and want us to return to some fantasyland where it's 1790 and government is invisible. Right.
Being a Republican seems to get those folks even angrier, as if a Republican is going to transform the political landscape with a wave of his hand. Reagan didn't and neither will George W. Bush.
There are no White Knights, only politicians. Get past the fantasy, vote for the politician that comes closest to your political values and let go of the anger when they simply don't give you everything you want. They never will. Whining about it and calling them names goes nowhere. Feels good I guess so I understand the temptation but it's wasted energy for the most part.
The problem I have with someone accepting the idea of settling for the politician who comes closest to their views is that it violates the concept of "representation".
Our current batch of congressmen have compromised their way to the largest waste of money, in the form of the "federal budget", in history. The rights of US citizens are slowly being watered down and the government "controls" nearly every aspect of our lives through out of control regulation.
The most disturbing aspect of our system is that both parties attack a "white knight" who proposes a change to the status quo. The big government postition of our politicians is a threat to our way of life and is being expanded at an alarming pace.
We as Americans deserve better. I believe that we must have the courage to seek out the "white knights" and refuse to support or vote for the politicians who take us for granted.
Unfortunately, I also believe that it will get much worse before it gets any better.