There is a profound world-wide multi-faceted attack on Democracy going on world-wide. And of course it is reflected on what is going on here at home. This is not a new challenge, it is greatly influenced by new technology and who controls it and how and whether it can be controlled. Think about what the printing press did to civilization and now we have the next phase in the internet as part of the new digital paradigm *christ I'm sounding like another member of this forum who disappeared).