I don't disagree with you (or Jefferson), but I'm not sure it's so different today than it ever was. I doubt that the population as a whole was ever super informed or fully resistent to lies, propaganda, and misinformation.
So maybe our democracy has never been or will be successful by that definition. But somehow (largely thanks to checks on power and infighting) it manages to kick along.
In my opinion, information is the only thing that can fight ignorance. Something that I find troubling with the modern Democratic platform is the desire to limit free information by labeling it "misinformation". Another move that I believe exacerbates the problem rather than addressing it.
We've never had a President that so many top generals, high-ranking Republican party officials, family members, and countless other close associates and former partners have all said is fundamentally unfit for office. This isn't just Democrats wringing their hands and crying foul. We're talking lifelong Republicans who honestly tried to work with him and could not believe the stupidity and malice. Remember all those Republican congressman who, in January 2021, said that Trump's little treason operation ought to disqualify him from office, then later fell in line when they realized having integrity is difficult? Doesn't that seem a little unprecedented to you?
> Doesn't that seem a little unprecedented to you?
Yeah it does, I don't disagree. But he won another election. By a lot.
I remember the same despair when he was elected the first time, with predictions of the end of the world as we know it, and yet here we are. I think the warnings this time like "democracy is in the ballot" will be shown to be wrong as well.
So maybe our democracy has never been or will be successful by that definition. But somehow (largely thanks to checks on power and infighting) it manages to kick along.
In my opinion, information is the only thing that can fight ignorance. Something that I find troubling with the modern Democratic platform is the desire to limit free information by labeling it "misinformation". Another move that I believe exacerbates the problem rather than addressing it.