Obviously, if you haven't read the posts here, we as a people have NOT become soft. We're just as mean as before, we just don't have a voice but the Internet and no one trusts the internet yet.
I disagree, every vote is a voice, and those votes, put these people into office. If we have soft government officials in office, it's because they were placed there, by people with similar views. Sure, the people here are most likely going to agree on many topics, because we share a strong common interest. On the flip side, you can probably find a thousand forums, that have a completely opposite point of view from ours. But all one has to do, is look at the officials that are currently running the show, they are soft, and they were put there by the people.