I was just reading about left-wing progressives who are unhappy with Pres. Obama and letting him know. They are disappointed in handling of events like the BP oil disaster, the changes to the healthcare bill and joblessness and letting him know their support can't be taken for granted.
The part that got this all going,

“We thought that an election was victory. We forgot that candidates don’t deliver change, that they become part of the system,” said Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins of Green for All, a progressive environmental group that opposes Obama’s loosening of offshore oil exploration restrictions.

At work as a community organizer, we talked about this from time to time as well when community members considered running for public office. Would this result in the watering-down of their values? Do you have to change to compete? If you are in the system, must you become of the system?

As much as I would like to say no I think people change to operate within their surroundings in most instances. In schools, jobs, the government, you adjust to the social norms albeit unintentionally as you become versed in the lingo and attempt to work and communicate with others. If you don't, there can be a constant discomfort, like magnets repelling each other but, is this always the case? Can you change a system from inside?
What do you think?