This will be a decisive election year. It's not about the issues that have been framed for us by special interests - this may be an election that sees people voting principles over positions.

Those traditional issues are important, but they are "above the fold" because they define our differences and raise our temperature and sell papers. This year, our differences will have to take a back seat. Our opinions matter less than the real questions in front of us.

This year we are faced with the awesome responsibility of setting aside the small stuff (and its almost all small stuff), set aside our differences, and authentically act on our personal responsibility to our country, our future and the principles we share in common. Everything else has to take a back seat.

First, we need to get government positioned to function on a much better level. Thats the simplest task. I brought a lawsuit, that the Supreme Court supported, to restore campaign donor limits. The next step is to completely take the exchange of money for promises out of the electoral process. Instead of a few large donors electing our officals, all of us should kick in 2 or 3 dollars to pay for qualified candidates to get their message out reasonably. Politicians would then be 100% accountable to the population that elected them - and they'd never know who specifically that was, just that they had better do what they said.

Secondly, we have to stop denying what taxes are and what they aren't, and use them more wisely. Taxes are not a lever for loosening concessions, rewarding favorites, curing all problems, or exploiting power. Taxes pay for what other operations of the economy won't or can't. Taxes can be a wonderful incentive, a bridge or a brace. When road building transitioned from a capital enterprise to a government function, it did so because it grew to the level of infrastructure, and it produced only very long term returns - and those returns were partly quality of life, not just monetary. Health care has grown to that level. Today's cost exceeds what people can pay: this service (with our aging population) has grown to become infrastructure. Insurance was a temporary bridge that has given way from the weight and dropped its load for over half the constituent obligation. We wouldn't let this happen to our roads or army.

"No new taxes" actually means pass the bill onto our children, bankrupt our infrastructure, borrow from the weakest and voiceless to pad the ride another mile for the strongest and wealthiest. Our forefathers knew that people were a great investment. We would not let our tools wear out like we've neglected our people resources. We need healthy people to work and pay taxes - thats where "more taxes" come from. We need educated kids who will bring tax paying jobs back to this country. Investment in education and health has a return that far outpays money spent on tax credits or corporate deductions.

Thirdly, we have to spend our good hard-earned money and time on solutions to a problem none of us wanted, none of us consciously created, but is in our face, and won't go away: Our planet has said "enough". Like a dog biting the owner who abused him, this planet is biting back, and we have stop the behavior that got us here, and start new behaviors that will calm the beast.

I just completed the design and planning - as a consultant - on the Midwest's largest, greenest community right here in the St Louis area. The carbon footprint for homeowners here will be 1/3 the typical home. Energy use is over 300% more efficient than a typical home. Our best practices support clean indoor air, sustainable use of raw materials and energy efficiency unseen in housing on this scale anywhere in the Midwest. It is an effective model for every builder. It added about 3% to our costs, but years to the value of living in the homes. Resource consumption living here drops like a rock. This one small community is equivalent to the planting of 30,000 trees, this year and every year hereafter. This is what we have to do, not can do.

Automakers are beginning to respond and we can support them. My lumber yard just switched to certified forestry products on their own - this is how it will happen. Our power is in our purchasing first. It will be in our voices raised to the producers, the politicians and the purveyors that will bring it full circle.

When we turn this vast ship, this boat we share, we can then revisit our squabbles over the small stuff, our differences. I expect our attitudes will be more tolerant - because it when people share the load and and lift it in place that they appreciate the custom, and remember the gifts they in common.