We are now in an election cycle with elections next week for municipal officeholders and school board members, and next year for president and Congress. How well are citizens prepared to play the role democracy assigns to them in making considered judgments when casting a vote? Walter Lippman, a long-time columnist and author of books on public opinion and governing, worried most citizens are unprepared. His view was that people live in the real world, but think in an imagined one. People are