"All politics is local." So said the late speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Tip O'Neill. I think he would agree that politics is also built on personal political relationships. Back in the day, when O'Neill was coming up, everybody knew everybody in the neighborhoods of Boston. Who you knew, who knew your family, mattered. But those kinds of neighborhoods and those kinds of relationships are rarer these days.

Society is more transient. Far fewer people live in the towns, let alone the neighborhoods where they grew up. Many of us are more isolated from the communities we live in. We are disconnected from politics and government. We don't know our city councilors or our state representatives. Voter participation is far lower than any other industrial democracy. Politics is ruled by big money, political consultants, ad agencies and television.

But there are deep rumblings and tremors in the body politic that may change that.