Both sides feed off each other. By attributing evil characteristics and motives to their enemies, partisans justify ever-hardening positions

In the 2024 United States presidential election, the future of democracy is at stake, we’re constantly warned. Where the threat comes from depends on who points the finger, with Democrats blaming the GOP and Republicans returning the favour. But what if they’re both right? What if America’s dominant political factions both pose a clear and present danger to the country’s political system and the liberty it’s supposed to protect?

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Last month, Gallup reported that a “record low” 28 per cent of Americans are happy with the way democracy is working in the United States. An earlier Bipartisan Policy Center poll flipped that around and found 82 per cent of Democrats and Republicans alike worried about the state of democracy. President Joe Biden thinks he knows where to place the blame: on his main opponent.

“Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power,” the president told a Pennsylvania audience on the third anniversary of the Capitol riot. “Our campaign is about preserving and strengthening our American democracy.”

Biden’s supporters agree with him. In December, 87 per cent of surveyed Democrats told AP-NORC pollsters that a Trump victory in November would “weaken democracy.” Then again, 82 per cent of Republicans said the same of a Biden victory. An October 2023 poll by PRRI found similar bipartisan fears that a win by the opposition would constitute a “threat to American democracy.”

They both have a point.

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