
Former ABC anchor Ted Koppel raised eyebrows when The Washington Post's Sunday Outlook suggested getting rid of things in a “spring cleaning,” and Koppel said “Democracy.” (Or “Democracy,” in quotation marks, as if that's less shocking.) Koppel began: “Democracy.” Let's dump it; toss it on the scrap heap of history. The concept remains worthy, but the word is rapidly being exhausted of all residual value.