This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.
When I was a kid, democracy was so normal and unassailable as to merit no more consideration than the air we breathed or the water we drank. Autocratic alternatives were nightmares that only afflicted people elsewhere and…
