The Trump Era has brought to attention the extent of the willful ignorance, gullibility, and insanity that I had always feared were there, but tried to ignore. Trump has been like an ultra-violet light that reveals what is less evident under ordinary light.

The answer to the question “Can a government of the people, by the people, and for the people long endure?” would be “It depends on the people.” A viable democracy requires a people that is well-informed, that abhors deceit in private and public life, and that is duly suspicious of candidates’ use of fear tactics, whether xenophobia or any other kind of “scare,” red-scare, slave-rebellion scare, the Pope-taking-over scare, women-taking-over scare, science-scare, and simple fear of the other. The people must insist on unreserved obedience to the country’s laws. The people must place first the “general welfare,” must be zealous for the common good.

I do have to wonder if the U.S.A. has any hope of measuring up to this.