Politics

Politics tamfitronics American democracy has never been entirely democratic. But, though the country’s Founders did not seek to empower every person, they did think a lot about how to empower almost every place. Most of human history before the nation’s founding had featured rulers who were so local that they were either in your family or in your neighborhood. Rulers not only knew your pain; they had felt it and even lived it, too. A democracy spanning great distances, then, such as the one envisioned by the Founders of the United States, was both a relatively new and deeply intimidating proposition. Elected leaders—congressmen, senators—might start off as neighbors, but they would then go on to distant places like the capital, where they would rule as strangers.And yet a national élite drawn from many places but...