A properly functioning democracy depends on an informed electorate.
Interpretation
A healthy democracy relies on voters who are knowledgeable and aware of issues.
Thomas Jefferson's quote emphasizes the critical role of an informed citizenry in maintaining the health and effectiveness of a democratic system. Without an electorate that is educated about political matters, the principles of democracy can be compromised, leading to uninformed decisions that may undermine governance and the public good.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech advocating for voter education programs.
The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.
I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
βWe must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude...If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements...if we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance.
A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
The task of the media in a democracy is not to ease the path of those who govern, but to make life difficult for them by constant vigilance as to how they exercise the power they only hold in trust from the people.
Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.
Democracy cannot be static. Whatever is static is dead.
American politics is a struggle, not of men but of forces. The men become every year more and more creatures of force, massed about central power houses.
The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.
I would vote for a Muslim if he or she was the best candidate able to lead the country and defend our political values.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.