

Others called it “ ominous,” “ awesome,” and “ heavy-handed.” Slate offered an alternative list: “ 15 Metal Albums Whose Titles Are Less Dark Than The Washington Post’s New Motto.” It was fodder for a few late-night cracks from Stephen Colbert, who suggested some of the rejected phrases included “No, You Shut Up,” “Come at Me, Bro” and “We Took Down Nixon - Who Wants Next?” The slogan quickly trended on Twitter, drawing tweets even from the People’s Daily newspaper in China. The Washington Post added a new phrase beneath its online masthead this week - “Democracy Dies in Darkness” - and the commentary flowed immediately. well, has there ever been a widely debated newspaper slogan?


Tiffany, 30 Apr.It may be the most widely debated and commented upon newspaper slogan since. Of Republicks the Varieties are infinite-or at least as numerous, as the tunes and changes, that can be rang upon a complete sett of Bells-Of all the Variety’s a Democracy is the most Natural-the most ancient and the most fundamental-and essential of all others. 1814Īdams distinguishes democracy from other types of republics in a later letter, and in doing so showed himself to be a man of the people, at least insofar as exhibiting an inconsistency in how he chose to apply the apostrophe to his substantives. John Adams, Letter to John Taylor, 12 De. Democracy must be an essential, an integral part of the Souvereignty, and have a controul over the whole Government, or moral Liberty cannot exist, or any other Liberty. The word does not appear in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States, but it was well known and used by the founders who created those documents, including John Adams:ĭemocracy, nevertheless must not be disgraced. Lookups for democracy spiked on February 22, 2017, after The Washington Post began using a new slogan on its website: “Democracy dies in darkness.” Many commentaries connected the move with President Trump’s hostility to the press in general, and the Post in particular.ĭemocracy means “a form of government in which people choose leaders by voting.” It came to English from French in the early 1500s, but traces back through Latin to Greek it was formed from the Greek words dēmos, meaning “people” and kratia, meaning “strength” or “power.”ĭemocracy is among the most looked-up words in our dictionary, and is currently #12 in all-time lookups.
