September 11, 2025

People who want to understand democracy should spend less time in the library with Aristotle and more time on buses and in the subway.

Simeon Strunsky (1879–1948), American writer, No Mean City (1944), Jay p.352

From where does your understanding of democracy derive? A college course perhaps—PoliSci 101?

Very much to the point: democracy is not just a thought or a theory, but a messy, contentious and often mean process, involving real human beings who belch, fart, and sometimes wet themselves.