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JEFFREY BROWN: As a political activist, she worked to elect women to office and was a co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus, traveling the country, speaking out against sexism and economic exploitation.

And Americans today are more likely to believe their elected officials care more about winning those partisan skirmishes, and even enriching themselves, than they care about the act of listening and representing their constituents.

In the 20th century, one of the biggest risks to declining democracies were coups, that somebody would come from outside, often military officials, and replace the democratically elected politician.