Democracy

MEGAPOD: The Most Overrated American Who Ever Lived

Plain English with Derek Thompson, 3 July 2026. The book comes up at 14 min 52 sec in.

During discussion of Chester A. Arthur and the corruption of the Gilded Age, a speaker quotes from Henry Adams's novel Democracy to illustrate how politicians of the era blurred the line between vice and virtue, citing a character described as someone who "talked about vice and virtue the way a colorblind man talks about red and green."

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