Earlier this week, I attended an event at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute co-sponsored by Campus Progress.  The event, Conversations with Tom Daschle, was a conversation between Senator Daschle and Tim Russert from Meet the Press.  The topic was media and the elections, which was a very interesting conversation.  As a history major, I cheered (silently of course) when he talked about how important it is for us to look back at our history when considering today’s events.  But the one thing he said that really stood to me was that it is important to not be cynical, but to be skeptical.  I think this comment is rather insightful.  It’s very easy to criticize anyone involved in politics – it always has been.  There is always something we don’t like and something that could be done better.  But what Russert is expressing here is that while we can dislike what our government does at times, our system really is something that we can have faith in.  Maybe this idea is old to a lot of people, but it was something that I haven’t heard in a long time, and it was refreshing to see that we can approach our government with faith in it that is not destroyed by the criticisms we may have.  And I think that it is this attitude that is an important mark of a true progressive.