Instead of polemical mudslinging, words like “realism,” “necessity,” and “practicality” have again entered the public domain. The ubiquitous sense of entitlement, accompanied by automatic skepticism about all things political, seems to have been replaced by a recognition that some problems are not susceptible to simple left-right explanations or solutions; that the government is neither omnipotent nor always ill-intentioned; and that there are limits to the prosperity that politics can provide.
除了乐此不疲地互相揭发隐私之外，类似“现实主义”，“必要性”和“实用”这些词汇又一次进入到公众语境当中。那种普遍存在的享受公共服务意识，以及凡是政治事务都值得质疑的心态，都将被一种认为有些问题不能仅仅靠左派/右派的解释和解决方案来处理的想法所替代；政府既非全能，也非总是图谋不轨；而政治所能提供的繁荣也是有限度的。