“Just how strong is our democracy, or any democracy?” people are beginning to ask. Well, culture matters, and we have a long tradition of a democratic culture, and that may see us through this highly authoritarian-flavored presidency we’ve just installed by less than a majority vote.

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But there are ample reasons to worry, and they are not always the usual suspects. The usual suspects are a crisis and runaway populism, but there are others.

We have strong democratic laws and systems in place. But you can’t count on these. Anyone who has ever worked anywhere with other people has probably noticed that you can’t idiot-proof a system. This was something that the founders recognized, and struggled with, and did their best to overcome. But they knew.

It’s up to every generation to remember and renew its commitment to democratic norms, but people can’t be counted on to remember anything anymore, other than their own personal wants. And the people who do remember just get old and die off and are replaced with their kids, who are the future, don’t forget. But the current generation is growing up in a world of two entirely separate and incompatible fact systems.

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One of those systems, commenters to this blog have informed me, believes that every single sentence in The Washington Post is a lie. Yes, every single sentence. Let’s just say that that’s going to make communication a little difficult. And when you have the two political parties aligned along those two separate fact systems (climate change is just made up!), that’s going to make national consensus a little difficult.