A core rhetoric of the Democrats’ election campaign was the perceived threat to democracy that President-elect posed. “Democrat is on the ballot” became a rallying cry.
Of course, this came from a side that launched a coup against the incumbent president and pushed a presidential nominee who failed to win a single primary. It will always be debated, but once could convincingly argue that the Democrats’ opponent was the victim of political persecution – something which, undeniably, is a threat to democracy in itself.
Kamala Harris compared Trump to Adolf Hitler [1] in the dying weeks of the campaign as she tried to lay down the idea that the President-elect was an authoritarian fascist. You only need the election result [2] to know that the tactic ultimately didn’t work.
This anti-democratic rhetoric was picked up by the more leftist elements of the mainstream media. “It’s not alarmist: A second Trump term really is an extinction-level threat to democracy”, was the headline of a Vox article [3] published three days before the election. That, itself, wasn’t a standalone claim, with the New York Magazine [4] repeating the Democrat argument in September. Even now the dust has settled, corporations such as the Washington Post [5] continue to regurgitate the perceived threat to democracy.
The issue was the top concern among exit poll respondents [6] on election night. Yet, quite hilariously, among those who saw this as a top concern voted for Trump.
Trump led by 4 points among those who felt that democracy in the U.S. is “very threatened,” while those who thought it was “somewhat threatened” voted Trump by a 1 point margin. Though to be fair, most Trump supporters see democracy as very secure, with Trump leading that demo by 9 points.
Hahahahaha, Trump WON the “democracy is very threatened” vote. https://t.co/cBAbiBIwdx [7]
— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) November 8, 2024 [8]
There are several reasons why it may have been Trump voters who were the most concerned. Whether it be the political persecution of their chosen candidate…
Lawfare backfired
— Jeff (@blahEhhGee) November 8, 2024 [9]
I was sure prosecuting a political candidate for sexually assaulting a 53 year old lady in the 1990s without any physical evidence was going to convince people that Dems supported liberal democracy.
— Emre (@emre_mayo) November 8, 2024 [10]
Underrated issue in this campaign is that Americans just weren’t quite ready to throw a former President in prison. Especially on flimsy political charges
— Greg Parks (@Parksabouts) November 8, 2024 [11]
… or skipping democratic processes.
Oh so skipping the normal primary process wasn’t preserving democracy?
— Jason (@ConcernedC40439) November 8, 2024 [12]
Truly incredible how dems are shocked by this after they spent 4 years trying to silence their main political opponent at any means necessary and then proceeded to cancel their democratic primary
— Alonso SZN ⭐️⭐️ (@FormulaAlonso1) November 8, 2024 [13]
In all likelihood, it was a combination of several factors as to why people felt the Vice President posed the biggest threat to democracy.
Probably has something to do with censoring speech, trying to arrest their political opponents, opening borders to change the country to be more left wing, and trying to end the filibuster and pack the Supreme Court.
— David Suslenskiy 🇺🇸 (@DavidSuslenskiy) November 8, 2024 [14]
If you enjoyed this article, check out WokeSpy [15] for more like it.