In his Foundation Series (written in the 1950s and 1990s), SF writer Isaac Asimov prophecized that democracy has a shelf life of two to three centuries before it falls in on itself. Society then reverts back to some version of oligarchy. Mr. Trump seems to be proving this prophecy true.

The main tenet of this article (in my opinion) is that the masses are unable to fathom the complex relationships within our society. Hence the root causes are not identified properly and the solutions proffered just won't work.

Twenty-three years ago, I started on a project of writing about an alternative system of governance. I would put my TDG "out there", get zero response, put it back on the shelf, make some changes, try again.

In 2017, I thought the emergence of Mr. Trump just might be the time for the world to take my idea a little more seriously. So the TDG got some re-packaging and was put "out there" once more.

The paradox is that there are many, many, many people who really don't like Mr. Trump. And Medium is, for sure, an anti-Trump forum. There are many, many political writers on Medium trying to ply their wordsmithing into the Medium lottery.

Some of the criticism of the current situation should be directed at the system that elected Mr. Trump in the first place. Mr. Trump should have never been a contender in the Republican primary and the general election in 2016. But he was--and that exposes a deep flaw in western democracy (not just the American version).

But the criticism of the system is not forthcoming. Instead Medium has lots of discussion that unelecting Mr. Trump is the solution. The system works OK: we just need to vote and protest (and write more anti-Trump articles).

I've been on Medium since April 2019. I have found about 10 lukewarm fans of my TDG idea. None of them can recommend these ideas to their social circles. None of them are willing to work towards this new democracy.

From my perspective, it seems Mr. Lees' assertion that the people are too foolish to govern themselves has merit.