 For example, Dewey explains how special interests, powerful corporate capital, numbing and distracting entertainment, general selfishness, and the vagaries of public communication make effective public deliberation difficult.Whereas Walter Lippmann believed that the public had little capacity to be a rational participant in democracy and was essentially nonexistent, Dewey held a more optimistic view of the public and its potential.Dewey did not call for an abandonment of the public; rather, he hoped the public would regain a sense of self.