So the fix was in to begin with

[Hortensis]

9. There's all the difference in the world between declaring democracy

in its grave and girding up for the continuing battle.

I disagree entirely with the "overconfidence" notion. I don't know what decades your life has covered, but during most of my adulthood we've been fighting for survival of ourselves and our nation -- ever since the nation became/was insidiously moved to the right, already under way by the 1980 election.

Our fault, if it is a fault, is that, being relatively decent and honest ourselves, we've failed to foresee just how depraved so many of our neighbors could become. It's natural that people with moral centers assume others also have limits to how low they can sink.

It's also natural that people fitted to democracy, those who don't long to be freed from the burdens of citizenship, are repelled by strongman authoritarian leaders and don't understand those eager to offer unconditional loyalty in return for an invincible mob to join.