The Practical Republic: "The reality is different. Listen to real people argue about politics, and you will generally hear them recite arguments that they got from professional opinion-makers (politicians, pundits, journalists, scholars, workplace authorities, and so on) that they happen to agree with (Tarde 1969 [1898]: 312, cited in Schudson 1997a: 304-305). From the point of view of the deliberative democracy model, this observation is an embarrassment, if not an elitist insult. But it is nothing of the sort. Coming up with novel political arguments requires a lot of work. "