I just glanced through the comments made by Stanley Fish. He demonstrates an undemocratic view of democracy, at odds with the history of America--which I consider to be the best representative of the democratic ideal.

Not perfect, by any means, not without serious problems, but ultimately, the best hope for the billions throughout the world seeking opportunity for themselves or their children.

The most important concept underlying democracy(American style) was articulated by Tom Paine in his "Rights of Man"..."The right of each generation to choose its leaders".

This right is paramount. Fish cannot resist not too gentle jibes at the Bush administration, ignoring the fact that he, too, shall be replaced in a matter of months.

I've lived through FDR, truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan,Bush(pere), Clinton, BushW...and who knows what's next...certainly not Gregory Peck or Morgan Freeman. Fish must be having an affair with Maureen Dowd, a columnist obsessed with the world of entertainment.

My parents, Jewish emigres from the Ukraine, came here to escape persecution and death. They were part of a horde of millions coming to this nation of refugees. For them, democracy was not a parlor game question. Fish, like too many others, has an underlying contempt for the average American. Like Plato, he thinks we need his imperial(imperious?) wisdom to pilot us through political waters.

Our history tells us that greatness arises from unexpected sources. Certainly, as England proves, not from nobility, and certainly, as events in academia demonstrate, not from so-called intelligentsia, choked by their methods from "taking arms against a sea of troubles".

I've wasted enough of my own blather trying to describe a world that, at its best, does not attempt to build a straitjacket against possibilities.

H.L. Mencken understood that democracy needs constant refreshing and infusion of new blood. The millions of Latinos and Asians now arriving will give new form to America--better or worse? Quien sabe? But it will be theirs to nourish.

Thank God--a ruthless dictator in Fish's fevered mind--our course will not be shaped by a claque of writers and actors in Hollywood.