President Biden has made preserving and protecting American democracy a central issue in his campaign for re-election. He regularly offers himself as democracy’s true champion and argues that electing his opponent, Donald Trump, would mean the end of democracy in this country.

As he said in a speech earlier this year, on the third anniversary of the January 6 Capitol attack, “Whether democracy is still America’s sacred cause is the most urgent question of our time, and it’s what the 2024 election is all about.”

“The choice is clear,” the Biden continued, “Donald Trump’s campaign is about him, not America, not you.  Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future.  He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy to put himself in power.” 

America, the president concluded, “must be clear: Democracy is on the ballot.  Your freedom is on the ballot.”

A Washington Post-George Mason University poll released this week contains good news and bad news for the Biden campaign. First, it shows that Biden has made substantial progress in convincing voters that democracy is indeed on the ballot. The survey of voters in swing states found that 61 percent say “threats to democracy” are extremely important to them.

Unfortunately for Biden, this same poll shows he is failing to persuade people that voting for him is the best way to preserve and/or improve democracy. Forty-four percent of surveyed voters in those states say that they believe Trump is best equipped to deal with threats to democracy, compared with only 33 percent who favor Biden to do so.

© The Hill