Democracy in America

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… of educating himself before speaking. Even modern political philosophers recognize that without an educated citizenry, democracy is impossible. Alexis de Toqueville in "Democracy in America" found the concern of the commoner for the welfare of the nation to be a key to the success of the American experiment of self-government under law. Looking at how poorly educated our citizens are about the real issues of the day, it's no surprise that we are seeing problems in public policy. I'm not suggesting it's inevitable that the nation will collapse, in fact the article gives me hope we can turn it around. But it has to start with educating citizens about their basic responsibilities. Of course, there are good and bad ways to do this. Heinlein had a model to ensure only concerned/educated citizens, and he presented it in Starship Troopers. So s…