Democracy, warts and all

While it is clear that democracy is our best hope, it's easy to see why democracy is fragile and problematic. Take a besieged planet protected by scattered pockets of civilized society, surround each of these pockets with huge, impoverished slums populated by resentful, uneducated, and desperate people who've been starved, and deliberately inflamed by misinformation, and then have everyone vote. SC