A nation cannot be both ignorant and free, Thomas Jefferson said. In short, that explains what’s been going on under Trump.

Education, access to information, and values rooted in respect for others: these are freedom’s cornerstones. Education includes science, access to information requires a free press, and respect for others centers on politics, the arts and basic human interactions.

No wonder that our democracy’s autocratic enemies (including Trump) strive to destroy all of them. It is no wonder that on the Internet, Russian bots focus on degrading human beings with foul language and verbal assaults. They get it: to destroy the power of democracy, begin by destroying basic decency and respect.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, in a podcast dialogue with David Brooks this week, said he does not fear what AI can do, as long as “trust, community and Sunday School” remain at the core of human behavior. He said that, when asked, “Is God in cyberspace,” he replied that an autocratic notion of God is not, but one that sees God “manifested in how we behave” is at the root of everything we do.

It is also fundamental that access to information is an indispensable component of democracy. Historically, this has always meant newspapers, from the time that moveable type was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1455. It boosted the Renaissance’s influence, leading to the rise of the Enlightenment and the American revolution. No one appreciated the value of a generally distributed newspaper more than Benjamin Franklin.   

“Journalism is the only profession in the United States protected by the Constitution, itself. Not doctors, not even lawyers. A free press is the life’s blood of a functioning democracy. More important, even, than the rule of law, and I say this as a lawyer for 40 years and now a full time law professor. Without a free press the destruction of the rule of law would happen in the shadows. We wouldn’t even know. We have to know. Knowing, ultimately, is what keeps us free.” This quote is attributed to Lawrence Tribe, law professor at Harvard.

Thomas Jefferson said a similar thing in the midst of the fight to establish the United States as a republic in its earliest years. Jefferson considered a free press to be a cornerstone of liberty and an essential check on government power, famously stating that if the choice were between government without newspapers, or newspapers without government, he’d take the latter. “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost,” he said.

Jefferson’s writings and statements reveal a strong belief in the importance of a free press for a healthy democracy. He saw a free press as the primary security for a nation, acting as a “censor” on government actions to prevent the abuse of power; he believed that an informed public was crucial for self-governance, noting that a nation cannot be both “ignorant and free.”

Walter Cronkite intoned that “freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy;” Oscar Wilde said, “in America, the president reigns for four years, and journalism governs forever and ever;” Ronald Reagan said “a free, strong, and independent press is essential to our continued success in what the Founding Fathers called our ‘noble experiment’ in self-government;” Hannah Arendt added, “the moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen.”

In terms of values rooted in respect for others, no statement has been as strong or as universal as the pivotal sentence drafted by Jefferson in the 1776 Declaration of Independence, that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.“

Yes, it said “men” then, but the sentiment was indisputable, such that the long arm of justice has led, under the rule of democracy, to its more complete inclusion of all persons.

The fight for the future must include all three: education, access to information and values rooted in respect for others. There is little our humanity is not capable of with them.