A number of activist groups also are becoming more prominent in the nation's capitol. Among the most effective:

* The Surface Transportation Policy Project, a national coalition to end America's 50-year-old policy of building new roads. Instead, the group advocates directing resources to repairing old roads and encouraging cheaper, less damaging alternatives, like railways and other forms of mass transit.

* Taxpayers For Common Sense, which works to eliminate federal subsidies and pork barrel projects that not only waste billions of dollars, but also encourage over-development of the countryside and sensitive ecosystems.

* The American Farm Land Trust, which works with farmers to save prime crop land from being engulfed by suburban sprawl. It is the fastest growing national environmental group, with membership doubling in the past three years to 30,000.

What ties these groups together? Three big ideas:

1). The budget deficit, which has become a powerful tool for activists to argue for an end to wasteful tax policies and destructive subsidies.

2). The environment. The right to clean air and water has now become a core value for a majority of the American people.

3). A longing for real communities. Across the political spectrum, Americans are calling for new policies that make neighborhoods and cities worth living in again.u