there s nothing inevitable about american democracy. this is a fragile, fallible, complicated experiment. that experiment has faltered before. it s almost failed, only to return triumphant. to understand how that happened, we need to go back almost a century ago. it was an existential crisis. the early 1930s. the great depression is battering a nearly broken country. depression, fear and failure stalk the nation. the jobs are gone. farms are foreclosing. there are riots in the streets, fights over scraps of food. franklin delano roosevelt has just been elected. this great nation will endure
that are buffeting us now are perennial. they ebb and they flow. the task of a mature democracy is to make those forces ebb more than they flow. and democracy is fundamentally a human enterprise. and as human beings, we re fallen, frail, and fallible. and i think that every day is a struggle between our better angels and our worst instincts. and if i get it right 51% of the time, that s a heck of a good day. yeah. and i don t have many of those. and the country is and i want some absolution because here i am with my spiritual lord. if you re feeling forgiving, your grace, i m ready. yes. a democracy is the manifestation of our habits of heart and mind. and that is at once terrifying
reagan s shining city on a hill? there s nothing inevitable about american democracy. this is a fragile, fallible, complicated experiment. that experiment has faltered before. it s almost failed, only to return triumphant. to understand how that happened, we need to go back almost a century ago. it was an existential crisis. the early 1930s. the great depression is battering a nearly broken country. depression, fear and failure stalk the nation. the jobs are gone. farms are foreclosing. there are riots in the streets, fights over scraps of food. franklin delano roosevelt has
reagan s shining city on a hill? there s nothing inevitable about american democracy. this is a fragile, fallible, complicated experiment. that experiment has faltered before. it s almost failed, only to return triumphant. to understand how that happened, we need to go back almost a century ago. it was an existential crisis. the early 1930s. the great depression is battering a nearly broken country. depression, fear and failure stalk the nation. the jobs are gone. farms are foreclosing. there are riots in the streets, fights over scraps of food. franklin delano roosevelt has just been elected.
proudly embraced it at home. but can america still be ronald reagan s shining city on a hill? there s nothing inevitable about american democracy. this is a fragile, fallible, complicated experiment. that experiment has faltered before. it s almost failed, only to return triumphant. to understand how that happened, we need to go back almost a century ago. it was an existential crisis. the early 1930s. the great depression is battering a nearly broken country. depression, fear and failure stalk the nation. the jobs are gone. farms are foreclosing. there are riots in the streets, fights over scraps of food. franklin delano roosevelt has