Excellent article.The only preolbm is of course if a government is going to go to war with other people and spy on other countries then obviously it does need secretes, but then if all the important info is kept secrete then how can a democracy function?The only answer I can come up with is it cannot, A firmly believe that a democracy cannot function correctly and compete on a global scale in the same way that it has up to now. Can true democracy work on any scale close to what the USA currently is, I do not know (but I know would look a lot different then it does now).And hiding information from its people is not the only hurtle democracy has seemed to stumble over.When we say that the entire nation gets to elect a leader to follow, what we really mean is that a small group of mostly white rich men have voted for two or three candidates and now we get to choose between them.And does any nation of people have the needed maturity to make the hard decisions, if everyone had a vote would taxes ever be raised? would Justin Bieber be elected to the presidency and arnold schwarzenegger be elected to the office of governor of California? Oh wait that last one actually happened.And say what you will about Communism, but thousands of years ago the best and the brightest people of the entire nation were chosen to govern China, and what do we have now? a popularity contest where the richest and most charismatic win, anyone with intelligence, compassion, and the needed skills need not apply.Which leads me to my closing point, as far as I know their is no course or required education (over anything very basic) required to make the decisions that guide the entire nation. If you want to be a doctor and operate on people you need to work your butt off for years and years, if you want to design buildings you have to go to school for years and learn many things, but if you want to outlaw anonymity on the Internet or unpasteurized milk all you need to be good at is looking good at parties and making good speeches; And if you want to teach children then you better have some intelligence and a degree meaning you went to school to learn how to and learn more your self (and you better be more then mildly intelligent if you actually want the children to learn anything you are teaching them), but if you want to decide what the children will be taught and how they will be taught then again you do not need any education in anything that would help you make an informed choice.Personally I think this is the biggest preolbm of politics today, the politicians were never taught how to govern properly.