ABSTRACT
The second paragraph of this quotation is one of the most widely quoted passages of a widely quoted book; unfortunately, it may have lost some of its impact since 1835 through repetition. Today, however, foreign and long-term military policy involves issues of survival in an un precedented fashion. The quote should be freshened up to become the warning it was intended to be. I chose to quote from de Tocqueville at length because I believe he describes the core of our problem as well as anybody has. It is very difficult to believe that we can muddle through the next ten or twenty years in the characteristic fashion of a democracy.
