HKB
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Often appears with: the passions and the emotions · liberty of the press · justice as a virtue · editorial censorship vs. press freedom · durability of public opinion · censorship and the press
Usually: argument (1) · detachment (1)
“When once the Americans have taken up an idea, whether it be well or ill founded, nothing is more difficult than to eradicate it from their minds.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America — Volume 1 · observation
Tocqueville argues that in the United States liberty of the press makes opinions harder to eradicate, producing stable government principles and durable public opinions through modified conviction rather than rapid change.
in the United States under the empire of the liberty of the press are frequently more firmly rooted than those which are formed elsewhere under the sanction of a censor. In the United States the democracy perpetually raises fresh individuals to the conduct of public affairs; and the measures of the administration are consequently seldom regulated by the strict rules of consistency or of order. But the general princi…