A society which is liberal democratic cannot have public policy determined upon the basis of who has got the loudest voice - or who can brings things to a halt.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Our public life withers when only the most extreme voices get attention. Most of all, democracy breaks down when the average person feels their voice doesn't matter; that the system is rigged in favor of the rich or the powerful or some narrow interest.
In a mass television democracy - which all of us nowadays have - it is impossible to take basic political decisions with long-term consequences without the public knowing it, without the public understanding at least some of it, without the public forming its judgment, heterogeneous as it may be.
A public figure cannot control what people say in open meetings.
The problem is there is no such thing as a viable democracy made up of experts, zealots, politicians and spectators.
Our democracy is predicated on the belief that our government should be accessible by the people. We cannot allow ourselves to give in to fear or shy away from interacting with the public.
Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.
A nation can't get strong on political pablum.
The people currently in charge have forgotten the first principle of an open society, namely that we may be wrong and that there has to be free discussion. That it's possible to be opposed to the policies without being unpatriotic.
An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery.
Democracy for us tends to be has to do with who shouts the loudest!