The big problem is a democracy relies upon the political process to counter partisanship, which sounds good in theory—people working out their problems together

The big problem is a democracy relies upon the political process to counter partisanship, which sounds good in theory—people working out their problems together; in practice the political process algorithm has not proved a sufficient immune system to sustain a democracy against the constant stream of forces subverting it for their own ends. In the US we’ve tried giving more power to the legal system in the hopes it might be enough to save democracy, but that strategy is essentially conservative. It’s not adaptive. A legalistic system can not rise to meet the problems of the present or the challenges of the future. A democracy, unless exceptional people lead it, can’t seem to overcome its own greed and self-interest. What we need are more exceptional people.