The two party system worked for years, because it fostered compromise and slowed the swing between extremes, which allowed the country to maintain equilibrium.

Sept. 11, 2001, allowed the conservatives to achieve a coup, the fear, the uncertainty, the very threat emphasized by the horrible attack on the twin towers allowed them to consolidate the Bush administration’s push for the Patriot Act, and tax cuts for the wealthy.

The Bush administration also allowed Dick Cheney’s Halliburton Corp. to get away with overcharges to the military in Iraq that were unheard of outside of the military industrial complex.

They even allowed a military contractor to open and operate bases inside the continental United States, even though their mercenaries were often foreigners.

These bases were allowed to own and operate automatic weapons on American soil, not allowed according to federal law. FYI: One on each coast.

We need to offset the gains made by the now discredited Bush administration, including the one vote advantage in the Supreme Court and the control of the House of Representatives.

The very courts are suffering because few judgeships are negotiating the rocky shoals of the House of Representatives, so our courts get further and further behind.

Our government is in dire need of change, and the Senate is actually making a step forward. The change of two-thirds to one-half to vote down a filibuster is decades overdue. They have been loath to do it because they could see themselves using it periodically.

If we do not reverse the trend to erase the middle class, we will create not just income disparity as we have now, but social chaos.

The conservatives forget that they may not live in our neighborhoods, but they must live in the same environment.

If society destabilizes, we follow the same path as the French. Riots, starving and desperation would lead to political instability. Hitler and Napoleon both came to power under the same type of circumstances.

We do not believe in military governments, or coups. We definitely do not want to create a climate for an extremist government.

I am a progressive, one who believes in liberal programs and the social safety net. On the other hand, I believe in our right to carry firearms. We need to be able to defend ourselves from lawlessness, as the police were not meant to be bodyguards, but law enforcers.

The answer is jobs, and education. The culture in the lower class does not encourage education, and our country today does not foster job development. In history, countries fall when they do not keep their people working and involved as citizens.

Our system of locking up minorities and the undereducated in giant warehouses called prisons is counterproductive.

They and their families become intergenerational members of a permanent under-class. Millions of affected adults and children increase the membership of those who have no hope, and have no real investment in our country.

Short-sighted politicians cannot see that the money would be better invested in the economy, instead of in any prison system or waging war, whether on man or drugs.

Dave Gebhard lives in Lakeport, Calif.