Who Is The Greater "Threat To Democracy"? -- Part II

July 08, 2024 Francis Menton @ Manhattan Contrarian 

A reader has reported that he tried to share my July 5 post, “Who Is The Greater ‘Threat To Democracy’?” on Facebook, and Facebook took it down. If any other readers have had a comparable experience with Facebook or other social media entities, I would appreciate it if you would share the experience with me. Use the “CONTACT” link at the top of the blog page.

Meanwhile, as I have thought about that post, I have realized that I barely scratched the surface as to both candidates, and therefore a second post with further elaboration would be appropriate. Bottom line: the deeper you go into this, the more it is definitive that Biden is by far the worse “threat to democracy.”

Trump

In the July 5 post, I put forth my own view as to the worst things that Trump had done that might be argued to be a “threat to democracy.” But how about giving a serious Trump hater the stage? Let them make their own best case in their own words.

Granted there are many to choose from. But here is a classic of the genre, just out on July 3 from Rebecca Solnit at The Guardian, headline “The US supreme court just completed Trump’s January 6 coup attempt.” OK, she doesn’t use the epithet “threat to democracy.” Instead she repeats multiple times that what Trump did on January 6, 2021, and what others supporting him subsequently did (notably the Supreme Court) was a “coup attempt.” That’s even more over the top than “threat to democracy.” The article as a whole has the tone of a primal scream. A few key excerpts:

The violent attack on Congress on 6 January 2021, and all the ancillary attempts to steal the 2020 election, were a coup attempt led from the executive branch of the federal government with support from Republicans in the legislative branch. 1 July 2024 – this Thursday [sic - it was Monday] – was a more successful coup attempt orchestrated by six judges of the judicial branch. . . .

They could not have picked a more outrageous man to throw their weight and reputations behind – a psychotic clown who’s also an indicted felon found liable in civil court for sexual assault, barred from doing business in New York, a stealer of state secrets, a would-be thief of an election and the instigator of a violent attack on the legislative branch of government and the constitutionally mandated transition of power after an election. A grifter who in 2016 won a minority victory in a corrupted election – his conviction earlier this year was on charges for one small part of that corruption. A man who has gloated about seizing dictatorial powers and never letting go and a worshiper of tyrants denounced by dozens of his former cabinet members and senior staffers.

Whew! But basically almost nothing here is about anything that Trump did during four years in office, and almost all of it is an assertion that Trump is a bad man. He is “outrageous,” “psychotic,” a “clown,” an “indicted felon,” a “stealer of state secrets,” a “thief,” a “grifter,” and so on and on. It’s classic ad hominem argument. None of that is evidence from acts that Trump is a unique “threat to democracy.”

The sole assertion that relates to something Trump did as President that would be evidence that he is a “threat” is that he was “instigator of a violent attack on the legislative branch” on January 6, 2021. This is one of those things that gets repeated so often that it takes on the aura of something that can’t be questioned. Well, I question it. Here is the transcript of Trump’s speech on January 6. Go ahead and read it and see if you can find the words that constitute the “instigation of a violent attack.” If you can find them, let me know what they are. I can’t find them.

The core of the speech is this paragraph that contains words you have no doubt seen:

Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.

After that paragraph there follows a long and detailed rant about many allegations of fraud and other election irregularities in the swing states. Some of these allegations had solid factual basis, and others not so much. I would say that, with the election certification about to take place, this was not the right time and place for such a rant. But there is nothing about it not clearly protected by the First Amendment. Trump many times urges the crowd to be “strong” and to “fight.” OK, every politician urges his supporters to “fight.” In the context of a political rally, that cannot be considered a call to violence. And other than that, there is nothing in this speech that can be considered a call to violence. Moreover, I’m not aware of any accusation or evidence that Trump participated in planning the demonstration/riot that followed on that day, or that he used the governmental powers that he controlled as President to support or advance the protests. And as far as I am aware, there were no arms of any kind involved on the part of the demonstrators/rioters — which makes calling the riot a “coup attempt” absurd.

Anyway, that would appear to be the best case against Trump as a “threat to democracy.”

Biden

The previous post contained a good list of some of Biden’s worst offenses against democracy: siccing the Justice Department on his political adversary on bogus charges; co-ordinating with the main social media companies to suppress speech of the opposition; the vast extra-constitutional expansion of the regulatory state. Here are a couple more, each very significant:

• Hundreds of billions of dollars of annual government funding for the institutions of the left. Statista here puts the annual funding just for post-secondary education in 2021 at $174 billion — and that is likely only a portion. As just one example, the entire climate change scam is mostly driven by government funding of academia. Biden is not personally responsible for all of this enormous support for left-wing politics, but he provides no push-back against the level of funding, and large annual increases.
• The several student loan forgiveness plans that Biden has put forth are naked vote-buying with taxpayer funds. These are entirely Biden’s unilateral acts. The fact that the President would attempt such an act without congressional authorization makes the threat to democracy even greater.
• Opening the southern border and letting millions in illegally. Again, this was basically a unilateral act of Biden. How many will vote illegally? Indeed, isn’t generating large numbers of illegal votes the main reason for opening the border?

I’m sure there are many more that could be added. The comparison is not close.