How can and will educators in any setting work with young people of all ages to enable them to develop the ability to interrogate--without denigrating--the claims of candidates, the newsmaking of media, the needs of their neighbors, and the fears of their family members? The answer I offer and defend here involves two dispositions--creative integration and pragmatist optimism--that I view as critical to the pursuit of vibrant and viable political democracy. These dispositions are, I argue, necessary to and evidence of the very possibility of a polity worthy of the "democratic" label.