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Keller @ Large: Proof We Are Not Powerless

BOSTON (CBS) - What's that?

You say you feel powerless, at the mercy of big time politicians, big business, and every power broker in-between?

Plenty of people have been feeling that way for a long time.

I was looking last night at a CBS News poll from 1976, 41 years ago, where nearly 60-percent of voters said government serves "big interests," not the people.

And last year, a poll found 60-percent of Republicans, 53-percent of Democrats, and two-thirds of voters under 30 felt "helpless" about the election, ultimately won by a candidate who promised to empower people who felt powerless.

I get why you might feel that way.

But cheer up a little. Because you're wrong.

Just look at what's happening lately with the most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States.

For now at least, his agenda on immigration has been rejected by the courts, his agenda on health care rebuffed by his own party, and a growing litany of campaign promises, on NATO and China, stalled or repelled by reality.

Right here at home, we recently saw the efforts of some of our most powerful politicians and business people to foist the Summer Olympic Games on us thwarted by popular outcry.

And right now we're seeing some of the biggest, most arrogant businesses in the country like the big airlines and Facebook forced to change their practices in response to public pressure.

Powerless?

Not you or me.

Unless we choose to be.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

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