IN RESPONSE TO MY COLUMN TODAY, Patrick Eickert emails: “Will your army of davids fix our immigration policies in a time frame that matters? How about our energy policies? Or our intelligence institutions?”

Actually, I’ve got a chapter on private antiterror efforts, expanding on the theme presented here. I didn’t write about immigration, which I agree is a core question of sovereignty and one that doesn’t lend itself readily to self-help, though the Minutemen are an early sign of what we might see if the federal government remains ineffectual on the subject.

As for energy, well, all those people out there buying more efficient cars, etc., are doing their parts, and I think there’s more movement in that direction than is generally recognized. I had a beer with a friend yesterday — a lifelong Republican and no Green — who’s running his new Dodge 2500 pickup on biodiesel. Why? It’s cheaper, and he likes the idea.

(He also notes that his new Dodge gets about 2mpg more than the old one, and has more horsepower, suggesting that the folks at Chrysler are holding up their end, too, at least somewhat.)

And speaking of influencing the government, he told me that he’s gotten two calls from the GOP fundraisers asking him to give $1000 or more and he’s turned them both down. Why? “They haven’t delivered what they promised.” That’s another army of Davids that’s not getting noticed as much as it might. Yet.