Who Is The Greater "Threat To Democracy"?

July 05, 2024/ Francis Menton @ Manhattan Contrarian

If the imploding Biden campaign, such as it is, has a main theme right now, that theme would appear to be that Donald Trump is a “threat to our democracy.” Or maybe it’s that Trump is “the greatest threat to our democracy.” Joe seems to repeat that line every time he comes out of the basement to speak. Here’s a short Instagram video issued by the Biden campaign about a week ago with the text “Democracy is on the ballot,” and “Donald Trump is the greatest threat to our democracy.”

But then, Trump served a full four year term as President. He has a record of four years in the office from which we can compile evidence of actions that he took while holding the powers of the presidency that might be viewed as threats to democracy. Biden also has a record as President, now approaching the same length, so we can do the same thing for him.

So which of the two is the greater threat to democracy? I thought it would be useful to compile in one place some of the more significant actions of each of the two that could be argued to fit that description. Bottom line: I don’t think it’s remotely close. Biden is the far greater threat.

But you readers may have different ideas. Feel free to add in the comments actions of either that you think are significant and should be viewed as “threats to democracy.” In this list, I’m going to focus on actions rather than words or statements.

Trump

• For me, the single most important item in the list as to Trump is that he never properly conceded the 2020 election. The tradition of our country is that those who lose the election concede. That tradition is enormously important, because a power struggle is the fastest way to destroy a successful country, let alone “democracy.” On the other hand, Trump did issue what was functionally a concession on January 7, 2021. Here is a CNN Report, with a video of Trump making his statement: “A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power.” It was grudging, and he never congratulated his adversary. But he did leave office and co-operate in the transition. So I can’t count this as a large “threat to democracy.”
• In the weeks and days leading up to January 6, 2021, Trump consulted with advisors and explored every possible avenue to void or delay certification of results of elections in swing states that he asserted were fraudulent. Much detail on this subject can be found in the indictment of Trump issued by special prosecutor Jack Smith in the DC case. Is this evidence that Trump is a “threat to our democracy”? I say no. To the contrary, I think that anyone serving as President who suspected that he was the subject of a fraudulent election would have presented identical or nearly identical questions to legal advisors.
• Similarly with Trump’s having initiated multiple litigations challenging the election results in the swing states. Litigation over alleged election irregularities is a regular part of our system. Trump lost all the cases, and accepted the results. This was functionally no different from Al Gore contesting the 2000 result in Florida.

All of that adds up to very little in my opinion. Now, let’s consider Biden.

Biden

• Using the Justice Department to prosecute the main political adversary for dubious crimes. This is what they do in places like Russia and Venezuela. The dubiousness of the Jack Smith DC prosecution had a spotlight shone on it just last week by the Supreme Court’s decisions in Fischer v. U.S. and Trump v. U.S. As the Supreme Court made clear in Fischer, the main basis for the criminal case against Trump over the J6 allegations proved to be an inapplicable statute stretched beyond its limits to chase political foes. Shameful — and clearly a major threat to democracy.
• Co-ordinating with and pressuring social media to suppress core political speech, including speech specifically relating to presidential elections. The Twitter Files disclosures exposed an entire Censorship Industrial Complex co-ordinated first by the Biden campaign, and then by the Biden White House, with the main social media companies. Perhaps the most egregious instance of speech suppression preceded the 2020 election, when then Biden campaign representative Antony Blinken co-ordinated with 50+ former intelligence officials to produce a letter in October 2020 arguing that the Hunter Biden laptop was “Russian disinformation.” Following that letter, social media companies suppressed publishing or linking to the (accurate) reporting on the laptop, which showed clear evidence of Biden family corruption and criminal behavior.

The Trump administration was not completely clean on the issue of requesting social media companies to take down content they did not like, particularly so with respect to Covid-related restrictions during the first pandemic year of 2020. However, I am not aware of Trump people co-ordinating with social media to suppress speech of their political adversaries. Perhaps readers are aware of some instances.

• Issuing massive new regulations with enormous economic consequences without support in legislation enacted by Congress. See as examples some of my recent posts on gigantic new regulations coming out of the Biden administration supposedly transforming the electricity-generating business and the automobile business. The regulations are issued by the likes of EPA, NHTSA, and the Department of Energy. I thought a fundamental aspect of “our democracy” was that new laws transforming our economy had to be enacted by the elected representatives of the people — that is, by Congress — and not unilaterally promulgated by the executive. This regulatory onslaught is a far greater threat to “our democracy” than anything Trump has done.
• Concealing Biden’s diminished capacities from the public for months or years, while having the office of the presidency operated by unnamed and unelected functionaries. I thought “our democracy” meant that the guy we elect is the guy who makes the decisions.

This is not at all a close contest. President Biden is actually a huge threat to “our democracy,” and has shone that by his actions in many contexts over his three plus years in office. And I haven’t even gotten to things like his (or his family’s) taking large bribes from the likes of China and Putin-ally Burisma. The constant repetition of the “threat to our democracy” theme only emphasizes how little of substance Biden has to run on.