raise your fists and stand up for, um, erm, what was that?

Raise your hand and politely suggest that reasonable discourse would likely benefit the political process!

the problem is that the polite, reasonable people get ignored by the strident voices of polemics.

Agreed. So let's strive to pay more attention to the normal, moderate people, and less to the pundits and polemics.

an excellent plan.

Give me some form of comparative and reasonable freedoms, or some mutually acceptable alternative!

that's not exactly how Patrick Henry said it...