The People vs Democracy - Great Book- Disturbing Topic

I have come to praise a book . The People vs. Democracy by Yascha Mounk I offer the book no greater praise than I got it out of the library on someone’s recommendation and have now ordered it on Amazon and am considering buying a dozen copies to hand out to friends and strangers The Book’s subtitle is Why our freedom is in danger and how to save it and the author does a masterly job of explaining the risk and mapping out actions and thought processes for the save . He does not pretend that the save is easy. I would have preferred a subtitle of How it is possible to want to live in a liberal democracy and end up losing both freedom and democracy by not paying attention and taking action The book rolls through history showing that neither liberal thinking or democracy have never been truly enshrined even in the most iconic of labeled as democratic . As history approaches modern times it shows how sheer complexity has moved real power further away from the people and the distancing of the people from their nominal representatives . No wonder we the people are as mad as hell even if we are not exactly sure why . we can feel it So, opens the door to a siren song of populism . It comes from the same source as the word popular right ? Isn’t popular about the Vox Populi and the Demos that underlies the theory of democracy . Isn’t the motto of Missouri Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto? He then shows the ugly rocks that the populist siren song leads to . Wreckage in the form of elimination of freedom of speech and of a free press and a general drift into a dictatorship or at best an elite rich oligarchy. How close are we now ? I feel the lure of populism . I am a naturalized American and a native Briton. I don’t have the vote in the UK but if I had I might have voted for Brexit . Why would I do that when my common sense sees the value of union and free movement of people and goods. It is simple. I sense that the EU is a non-democratic entity that is not answerable to any form of people power . It maddens me more when I realize its elite is mostly composed of bureaucrats and failed national politicians .This is true whether the actual EU t is accomplishing “good things”. Would I have cut off my nose to spite my face – I might well have done . I did not have the vote so push never came to shove. Returning to the book he expounds in simple 2 by 2 diagram how the high ground of a liberal democracy ( he suggests Canada ) can slide into an illiberal democracy ( he uses the political direction in Poland , which is actually within the EU) or an undemocratic liberalism ( he uses the EU as an example and you saw my Brexit dilemma) or a plain old dictatorship ( he uses Russia as his example ) So what hope does he offer ? well to be honest it sounds like Churchill offering only blood , sweat and tears and it certainly isn’t for the lazy or fainthearted . We must engage with problems , recognizing that they don’t have easy answers and examine and reengineer all our institutions without tearing them down wholescale . Above all we need to be vigilant and engaged at a grass roots and at a macro level . if we don’t we will docilly march along the road to serfdom ( my apologies to F A Hayek fans for bowdlerizing his words) .