You’re framing the situation as a choice between ‘Trump, who is willing to subvert democracy’ and ‘the Democratic Party, who is willing to subvert democracy’. This framing implicitly acknowledges that Harris is not (especially) willing to subvert democracy.
It’s very plausible to believe that both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are roughly equally willing to subvert democracy, especially given the significant influence Trump has on the Republican Party.
It then becomes a choice between:
Trump and the Republican Party, who are both willing to subvert democracy
vs.
The Democratic Party, who are willing to subvert democracy, and Harris, who is not.
In this comparison, Harris’s apparent commitment to democratic norms becomes the deciding factor in how you evaluate the overall democraticness of the choices.
I accept that I should talk about “Trump and the Republican party”. But conversely, when we talk about the Democratic party, we should also include the institutions over which it has disproportionate influence—including most mainstream media outlets, the FBI (which pushed for censorship of one of the biggest anti-Biden stories in the lead-up to the 2020 election—EDIT: I no longer endorse this phrasing, it seems like the FBI’s conversations with tech companies were fairly vague on this matter), the teams responsible for censorship at most major tech companies, the wide range of agencies that started regulatory harassment of Elon under the Biden administration, etc.
If Trump had anywhere near the level of influence over elite institutions that the Democrats do, then I’d agree that he’d be clearly more dangerous.
You probably know much more about U.S. politics than I do, so I can’t engage deeply on whether these things are really happening or how unusual they might be.
However, I suspect that much of what you’re attributing to the Democratic party is actually due to a broader trend of U.S. elites becoming more left-leaning and Democrat-voting. Even if I agreed that this shift was bad for democracy, I’m not sure how voting for Trump would fix it in the long run. A Trump presidency would likely push elites even further toward left-leaning politics.
Regarding point 1.
You’re framing the situation as a choice between ‘Trump, who is willing to subvert democracy’ and ‘the Democratic Party, who is willing to subvert democracy’. This framing implicitly acknowledges that Harris is not (especially) willing to subvert democracy.
It’s very plausible to believe that both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are roughly equally willing to subvert democracy, especially given the significant influence Trump has on the Republican Party.
It then becomes a choice between:
Trump and the Republican Party, who are both willing to subvert democracy
vs.
The Democratic Party, who are willing to subvert democracy, and Harris, who is not.
In this comparison, Harris’s apparent commitment to democratic norms becomes the deciding factor in how you evaluate the overall democraticness of the choices.
I accept that I should talk about “Trump and the Republican party”. But conversely, when we talk about the Democratic party, we should also include the institutions over which it has disproportionate influence—including most mainstream media outlets, the FBI (which pushed for censorship of one of the biggest anti-Biden stories in the lead-up to the 2020 election—EDIT: I no longer endorse this phrasing, it seems like the FBI’s conversations with tech companies were fairly vague on this matter), the teams responsible for censorship at most major tech companies, the wide range of agencies that started regulatory harassment of Elon under the Biden administration, etc.
If Trump had anywhere near the level of influence over elite institutions that the Democrats do, then I’d agree that he’d be clearly more dangerous.
You probably know much more about U.S. politics than I do, so I can’t engage deeply on whether these things are really happening or how unusual they might be.
However, I suspect that much of what you’re attributing to the Democratic party is actually due to a broader trend of U.S. elites becoming more left-leaning and Democrat-voting. Even if I agreed that this shift was bad for democracy, I’m not sure how voting for Trump would fix it in the long run. A Trump presidency would likely push elites even further toward left-leaning politics.