Lincoln quote

Watching this year’s campaigns, I am reminded of a quote from Abraham Lincoln, roughly paraphrased: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

For those who want accuracy, here is the entire original quotation:

Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.

American democracy thus far has survived incompetent presidents, fractious and corrupt  legislators, financial disasters and even civil war.  But can it survive any of the four current leading contenders for the presidency? Can it survive, in this increasingly complex world, an electorate (that’s us) so naive and uneducated about history, world affairs, science, and basic economics, and so easily swayed by unrealistic populist promises or religious or political ideologies?