Democracy only works when enough people are interested... and I'm not sure enough are any more

The connection between sacrifice and democracy has been loosening since World War Two. That's why Americans weren't especially bothered when Trump told them they won't need to vote next time around

If there’s one thing Donald Trump understands about his own electorate — and electorates around the world — is that vast swathes have become complacent, over-entitled and lazy. Those of us who had parents who lived through the Second World War understood the connection between war and sacrifice and freedom and democracy — and that, as a consequence, gave us an onerous sense of responsibility about voting on an informed basis — but that connection has become loosened with each succeeding generation. Too many voters these days vote as if they were consumers who regard themselves as always right and go for the candidates that are most attractively packaged and promise the earth and pay little or no heed to the small print or the fact they come with no guarantees. Too many regard voting and the whole business of politics as a tiresome encumbrance that distracts from their favourite reality television series and other leisure pursuits. They’ll often say they have quite enough on their hands what with their families and their jobs. That’s why, when Trump assured his fellow countrymen and women that next time around there would be no need for them to make the effort to go to the polls — ‘you won’t have to do it any more; four more years, you know what, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, my beautiful Christians’ — this extraordinary statement more or less passed without comment, the fact that what was once the world’s greatest democracy was succumbing so uncomplainingly, even with a sigh of relief, to dictatorship seemed entirely unremarkable and absolutely nothing for anyone to get hot and bothered about.