In an op-ed for the Tennessee Star, Elizabeth Eastman ’81 examined the effect the coronavirus may have on American democracy through the lens of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. “With no firm pronouncements on when the restrictions on activities and movements will end, there is increasing debate about the costs of isolation from the standpoint of mental health, economic consequences, and, if we take Tocqueville seriously, the cost to our social and political well-being,” Eastman says. “The negatives readily come to mind, but Americans may reap benefits from the dramatic events that the nation is experiencing if they reflect upon and recapture the different roles that governments play and the responsibilities of the citizenry.”