Can Democracy Survive Social Media?

"A republic, if you can keep it", said Franklin about the new form of American government.  Franklin was an intellectual.  I doubt he could be heard now.

Truly, whenever something is posted on social media, piles of self convinced reply to it.

Political discourse has always had a rough edge, but the least educated, most opinionated, and least intellectually endowed did not always reply to every single political story or advertisement made.  Now, they do, and indeed downright dominate it.

As an example, anything posted in favor of Cheney will receive piles of self convinced assertions that Trump is nearly a saint and everything said against him is an anti-American plot.  This is, frankly, absurd.  

Or, as an example, one post pointing out the fabrications of another, recently received replies that amounted to the schoolyard "nanna nanna doo doo".  That is not an argument, but that's the general nature of the replies on social media.

It's not that some political discourse is like this.  Most is.  Twitter, Facebook, or what have you, pander to the lowest common denominator, not the intellect.

Early on, the political forces of the republic actually catered to the intellect.  Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and the like, were intellectuals.  People with knee-jerk, ill-informed, opinions didn't get it much past their neighbor's fence. People with informed opinions were better able to distribute them.

They wouldn't get a voice now.

This direction is, to say the least, not encouraging.