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The Economist is Independent Journalism for Independent Thinking.

Go to Economist.com and get your first month free. I remember the Harvard Crimson polls students at the end of every year and one of the

questions just do you feel able to say what you're thinking in class and something like 75% of the

kids said no but if you have even a question about certain ideologically set ideas you are not going to speak up.

And now the good fight with Yasha Monk. On November 3rd, 2020, I became significantly more optimistic about the state of democracy in the United States and perhaps around the world

than I had been over the last few years. For about 10 years we have seen a very rapid rise

of a for the townists around the world.

And remarkably, there have been very few instances

in which democratic forces were able

to remove those leaders by democratic means.

Joe Biden's election was the first grand victory

in the longstanding battle between democratic and authoritarian populist forces.

Well, over the last two months, some of my residual pessimism has crept back up on me, but has to do of course with the extent to which

Donald Trump seems to keep a hold over the Republican Party. It has to do with the

...