“All politics is local,” according to the late Tip O'Neill, but local politicians are hard to find these days. With the election season drawing to a close, only one candidate - Kellie Noe, running for the West Sonoma County Union High School Board - has come to my front door to ask for my vote (which she will get), and only a few campaign signs have been planted in the front yards of my neighborhood.

I live on Florence Avenue, in the heart of supposedly politically conscious Sebastopol, so it's hard not to feel a little disheartened by the lack of political activity on my street, or in the town itself, for that matter.

In past election campaigns my neighborhood would be liberally dotted with yard signs. We would have a steady stream of candidates going door to door, personally seeking votes. Grassroots politics were on display and election excitement was in the air. On a warm and sunny autumn day you could practically smell the political winds, although, of course, on second whiff this aroma could be more accurately identified as fertilizer wafting in from the farms on the edge of town.

Times have changed. Florence Avenue has been transformed into a virtual outdoor art museum, thanks to Patrick Amiot's marvelous front yard metal sculptures, which attract a steady stream of art lovers, many of whom enjoy the art without even getting out of their vehicles. As a result, Florence Avenue sometimes resembles one long drive-thru window for car-bound connoisseurs of junk sculpture.

It's nice to have art showcased in the neighborhood, but I do miss the candidates and campaign signage that seem to have been crowded out by all the art. It occurs to me that Bismarck's observation that “politics is the art of the possible” may no longer apply on Florence Avenue, where politics scarcely seem possible on account of all the art.

Well, let me get serious and address the political apathy prevailing in our community these days, which of course has nothing to do with the great art work in my neighborhood. I don't know exactly why the political mood in Sebastopol seems so subdued at the moment, but around town one senses little excitement that an important election is approaching. It is almost like we have taken absentee voting to a new level, and now we have the entire absence of an election, or at least the absence of community interest that traditionally has energized our local elections.

Three and a half years of war certainly has something to do with this suppression of local political spirit, as do the pessimism borne of 12 years of Republican rule in Congress, and the six dispiriting years of Bush running the White House as though it were the Kremlin. It doesn't help that Phil Angelides's dismal campaign all but ensures the re-election of a serial groper governor who will likely escape all liability for his overreaching in office and out. And, not least, there are the profuse state and local propositions, promoted and opposed with so much sophisticated disinformation and misdirection that the average citizen feels vaguely brainwashed in trying to sort it all out.

Democracy may be at work, but it doesn't feel right, or even real. Progressive, anti-war voters, and just plain independent thinkers, are hoping the Congressional and Senate races will bring a change in the national power dynamic, and that a new and sustainable vision for America will emerge. We are all hoping for something, anything, to revive our nation. Politics may not be local - it starts at the top and can land heavily on you - but that's no excuse for not getting involved.