Either authoritarianism or democracy will win tonight
By 
It’s not a comforting thought given the likely outcome, but we should still resist the stupid and complacent arguments that Democrats don’t really think that Republicans are a threat because they won’t run on a platform consisting of all of my policy preferences, or because they put unreconstructed communists like Joe Biden and Joe Manchin in critical positions of power, or because they run negative ads about MAGA candidates before the primary process ends. Democrats in fact think Republicans are a threat to democracy, and they are unassailably correct:
Over the past few days, conservatives thrilled to Elon Musk’s attempts to make Twitter’s content-moderation policies more friendly to the Republican Party, then agonized as a slew of corporations — fearing the site would no longer provide a congenial environment — withdrew advertising. In retaliation, a series of leading Republicans threatened to punish those firms. Advertisers leaving Twitter “are begging to sit in front of a House panel next year to discuss their company’s participation in leftist corporate extortion,” warned Josh Holmes, a lobbyist and adviser to Mitch McConnell. “Major corporate advertisers ought to think twice before entering the political arena,” added Senator Tom Cotton. Mike Davis, a conservative activist, proposed that an offending firm “should plan for intense congressional oversight in January, when Republicans reclaim the House and Senate.”
The episode illustrates two important things about the election. The first is how deeply illiberal ideas about government have penetrated the Republican Party. Not long ago, it would have been considered axiomatic that private firms have the right to spend their advertising dollars where they see fit. Now many conservatives believe the government can bully them into subsidizing friendly platforms. To be clear, they don’t believe the government has a general right to do this — they would respond volcanically if Democrats tried it — but instead believe their party does not need to follow any shared set of rules or norms. Davis, the former chief counsel for nominations to Charles Grassley (i.e., not some random crank), was asked what crime they would be answering for and replied menacingly, “That’s how principled conservatives (who love to lose) think. New Right plays by the Left’s rules.”
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The Democratic Party’s pleas that “democracy is on the ballot” has provoked a fair amount of sneering, including from conservatives who oppose Donald Trump. (It has also drawn eye rolls from Biden supporters who object that it’s an ineffective message. While I concede that it is, my job is not driving messages but describing reality as I see it.)
And it is true that democracy is not on the ballot in the sense of the election being a yes-no referendum on democracy versus dictatorship. But this is because the binary construct between democracy and dictatorship is a figment of the popular imagination. These forms of government exist on a continuum. And it seems highly obvious that the Republican Party’s success in the elections will push the country further along the continuum toward authoritarianism — perhaps just a little or, depending on the unpredictable course of events, perhaps decisively.
Every step down the authoritarian path is a bad one, and every gain by Republicans today represents one.