Two stories at the center of the news — the Brexit mess in Britain and the U.S. Senate's failure to act on gun violence — should force us to think hard about what it will take for historic democracies to make their systems work again. We need to accept that different conceptions of democracy sometimes contradict each other, and that some of our governing structures are the antithesis of democratic rule.
The implosion in the UK has created what usually sober and moderate analysts have taken to calling a "revolutionary moment." Prime Minister Boris Johnson took office this summer committed to getting his country out of the European Union by Oct.