Sean I'm in complete agreement with your assessment of this quote, like many other quotes on this site it is taken totally out of context. After reading many of the responses I would have to assume that no one this board has actually read Democracy in America. If they did they would realize that Alexis De Tocqueville was a strong and avid promoter of American Democracy and of the American Citizen. De Tocqueville wanted his own aristocratic government of France to follow the best practices learned from the Democratic government that was being developed in America. We Americans should be proud of our struggle for Democracy and have a better understanding of it critiques.