How this current government shutdown betrays our Founding Father’s legacy When French Minister Alexis de Tocqueville toured America, he remarked in his book Democracy in America that “to meddle in the government of society … is the only pleasure that an American knows.” The America he saw in 1831 was one of a well-reasoned and deliberated disagreement, and consisted of a well-informed public that collectively endeavored to push past local and factional differences to make America a better…