The free press in America is a weapon of its parties and also an informal factor in the sovereignty of the people. Government by the people is government by their opinions, which they choose: the power of the press is to formulate the opinions that the people choose. This is the power of the enlightened, but in the United States there is no intellectual capital equivalent to Paris, and the enlightened are dispersed so that they cannot readily address the whole nation. The spirit of the journalist in America by contrast to France, where he has more power, is one of coarse attack, appeal to passion, avoidance of principle, and scandalous revelations. -pg. 39, Tocqueville: A Very Short Introduction

Equality turns men to material goods because it overturns any aristocratic authority above them that would lead or compel them to turn their imagination to the future and to sacrifice their material interests for a long term goal. Democrats live in the short term; they have their minds on the present. And what is in the present, visible to all without need for instruction or sacrifice? Material goods. The trouble is that the material goods one acquires increase the thirst for more, bringing discontent rather than satisfaction. In a democracy one is free to change one’s place, one’s job, one’s home, and since Americans set their hearts on the good things of this world, and always more of them, they must always be on the move and in a hurry. No law or custom keeps them where they are. So Americans are grave and sad; they cannot have what they want; life is too short, there are too many choices. -pg.54, Tocqueville: A Very Short Introduction