The Founders committed the country to a “democracy” which at that time excluded most Native Americans, Blacks, and women. But the commitment was there, and eventually most of the excluded were granted full citizenship rights. Furthermore, for more than a century, considerable “wherewithal” was provided for them. The elements of wherewithal were provided by political “parties,” by “education,” and by “journalism.” Parties got organized almost immediately, so that politicians could offer voters policy choices and so that the politicians themselves could bring different parts of the new government to work together. “Public schools” started teaching children to maintain religious faith but, during the 19th century, morphed into institutions culminating in land-grant and other “universities” aimed at educating citizens in science, useful occupations, and democratic culture. Journalism first belonged to parties, but technology produced the penny press sold to anyone and hawking sensationalism, which got a professional response in the 1890s when the New York Times announced it would publish only news “fit to print.” Ominously, however, early decades in the 20th century cast “doubts” on the viability of democracy, when thinkers like Gustave Le Bon, Sigmund Freud, and Walter Lippmann described ordinary citizens as in thrall to the “herd instinct” and “stereotypes,” and when leaders like Adolf Hitler explained how the masses can be swayed by “big lies.”