Want to save democracy? Listen to the poets

“A child said, What is the grass?

…....................................

“Growing among black folks as among white,

“Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff,

“I give them the same, I receive them the same.”

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Recent expert panels point to voter suppression efforts, legislative bodies that don't bother that much with the issues that concern citizens, and rancid partisan politics as “flaws” in American democracy. Each of our major parties agrees that the other party has become an existential threat to democracy itself. But what exactly is the democracy we mean to save, and...