Who Defends Democracy?

When Democrats scream that Trump is Hitler, they miss that he has been the best defender of democracy in a good long time.

American  Thinker 

For a long time now, Democrats have claimed that they are “defending democracy.”  Most recently, Barack Obama appeared at the Democratic National Committee summer meeting and ended his spiel with a plea to his audience to “defend democracy.”  Against what, he neglected to say, but the implication was that his political opponents are a threat to democracy.

Often progressives are more specific.  They think Donald Trump has studied Hitler’s speeches and that he is following Hitler’s playbook.  They see Trump as a dictator who is using ICE and other federal agencies to “take over” our democracy.  They think bringing in the National Guard to protect citizens against gang violence is a step toward dictatorship.

Like all such claims, it comes with no proof.  How exactly are Republicans threatening democracy when they prevent crime or when they deport illegals who have committed violent crimes?

The problem with the Democrat strategy is that it is inherently irresponsible and extremist.  As Eli Hassell wrote in the Times of Israel, “comparing Trump to Hitler is ‘cheapening’ the Holocaust.”  He continued: “Words cannot describe the soul-crushing harrowing atrocity that [Hitler] caused.  After leading the Nazi party into governance, he committed a genocide against the Jewish people, killing every Jewish person he could find.”  Hassell specifically criticized Kamala Harris for comparing Trump to Hitler, but the same could be said for nearly every Democrat leader.  As Hassell points out, it is a “desecration.”  Do they really think Trump has committed evil on a scale equal to the Holocaust?

To suggest that one party is “defending democracy” while another is a “threat” to democracy, often with allusions to Nazis, dictators, storm troopers, and the like, is not just untrue; it is dangerous and irresponsible.  It raises the political temperature to the point where some may feel that violence is necessary to “defend” democracy, as was the case with two attempts on Trump’s life and a series of mass attacks by anti-Trump ideologues.  Is it wise for liberals to incite this kind of violence?

The reality is that neither Republicans nor Democrats, in a normal state of affairs, are a “threat to democracy.”  The two parties have existed for nearly two centuries, and, though there have been abuses, like FDR trying to stack the Supreme Court or Nixon approving the Watergate break-in, neither has attempted to “end” democracy.

In the case of President Trump, he was elected twice (perhaps three times) in fair elections, and he has governed in a constitutional manner.  Nearly every time his actions have been challenged in the courts, the Supreme Court has sided with Trump.  In other words, the constitutionality of Trump’s presidencies has been tested, and he has been found to be acting fairly — and democratically.

Russia-gate is where the Democrats crossed the line and actually threatened democracy with a serious attempt to subvert an election and undermine a president’s ability to govern.  Notice that even with perhaps the worst abuse in our nation’s political history, conservatives were not calling Democrats “Nazis.”  I can’t recall any Republican who referred to Biden as “Hitler.”  It is only progressives who have been using this dangerous rhetoric.

One irony is that the Democratic National Committee summer 2025 meeting, at which Obama claimed to be defending democracy, was held in Minnesota at precisely the time of Robin Westman’s attack on a group of Catholic schoolchildren who were praying, and at the time when numerous Democrats, including Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki, assailed those who said their “thoughts and prayers” were pointless and offensive.

The “thoughts and prayers” debacle is another example of progressive rhetoric gone haywire, and the underlying cause is a disconnect from reality: To dismiss and disparage Christians for their thoughts and prayers for the victims of the Minneapolis shootings demonstrates just how far progressives are from the values of ordinary Americans.  Worse yet, it suggests that progressives and the Democrat party as a whole are slipping into a sort of madness — a fantasy-land in which only they are virtuous and their opponents are evil.

It also shows that progressives do not understand that words actually matter.  To suggest, as many Democrats have, that prayers are pointless reveals a blatant misunderstanding of the nature of prayer and of religious faith in general.  It’s not at all different from comparing Trump to Hitler or saying he is a threat to democracy.  It’s not just a misuse of language, but a derangement of thinking.  Progressives really do think that it is wrong to pray; they do think Trump is Hitler; they do think conservatives want to destroy democracy.  They have moved past reality into a kind of madness, and that is dangerous. 

The truth is that Donald Trump is strengthening our democracy in a host of ways — by securing our borders, deporting criminals, safeguarding Americans in their cities, cutting federal spending, restoring fair and equal tariffs, and imposing safeguards at the ballot box.  The very one who has been accused of threatening democracy is the one who has been democracy’s greatest defender.

Only a minority of voters actually believe that Republicans are a threat to democracy.  The majority is moving toward Trump and the Republicans, as can be seen in Trump’s rising approval ratings and in increasing GOP voter registrations.  Even in terms of narrow political self-interest, it is foolish for progressives to continue their irresponsible attacks, but progressives can’t seem to help themselves.  They like the idea that conservatives are “destroying democracy,” and they’re going to continue making the false claim right up to and beyond the 2026 and 2028 elections.  That’s not good for the country, but it will probably help Republicans at the polls.