They concentrate on appearing calm, soft-spoken, and confident. They choose terminology designed by experts that have been successful in advertising for psychological acceptability. Truth, and facts, do not matter as much as a focused presentation.
2)

An exercise in seeming, rather than being.

They claim they are defending democracy, while they discourage, and even punish, the core of real democracy and liberty - dissent - demanding conformity, demonizing those who disagree.
3)

We hear from them what “everyone believes….”, what “all Americans believe….”, and what “the experts (or science) say…….” Regardless of the truth of the matter, to imply that those that dissent are stupid, crazy, or evil.
4)

And when that does not go far enough, they make false accusations against those that dissent so as to damage them and stop them. 5)

And they make rules for everyone to obey, except for the privileged who are just too rich, too important, too powerful, to have to follow the same laws and rules made for everyone else, and that goes from mask mandates to evasion of ethics standards.
6)

Take a look at your politicians. All of them regardless of party. See who discourages dissent. There you will find the threat to democracy.

“THREAT TO DEMOCRACY”

THIS IS THE LATEST, THOUGH NOT SO NOVEL, ACCUSATION THAT HAS BECOME SO WIDESPREAD AS A POLITICAL TOOL.
7)

In the USA, we hear from President Biden and his Attorney General, and some Congressmen and Senators, that if you disagree with the Administration or question what one party is doing to push its agenda or stop that of the other party, that is a Threat to Democracy.
8)

In 2015, Senator Schumer said that the Republicans trying to do away with the Filibuster in the Senate, was a “THREAT TO DEMOCRACY”, and in 2021, the same Senator Schumer said the Filibuster is a “threat to democracy”.
9)

So I guess a threat to democracy is whatever one wants to believe it is based on political agenda.� 10)

In Israel, the left has claimed that Netanyahu was a “threat to Democracy”.

Just last week, the EU declared what Poland did by restricting its High Court’s role, and what Hungary and others have done regarding migration and other issues, are all “THREATS TO DEMOCRACY” 11)

In Italy, anyone who questions the elite’s assumptions, is a “threat to democracy”, especially any party that questions EU dictates from Brussels.
12)

SO JUST MAYBE WE SHOULD DECIDE WHAT A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY, TO LIBERTY, REALLY IS - on a non-political base.

To me, a “threat to Democracy” includes the following: 13)

A. Any Government or media driven effort to limit or punish or discourage dissent legally or through intimidation, and that includes use of language to be “politically correct”. 14)

B. Any Government or Media effort to prevent public debate on issues by censorship, by refusing access to media, or by use of ridicule, belittling, or lying about those who dissent. 15)

C. Libel and Slander (false accusations and false characterizations) used by those with power to demean those with whom they may disagree. 16)

D. Any effort to undermine elections. - whether by allowing non-citizens to vote, opposing efforts to have people ID themselves to prove their eligibility to vote, or any other effort made to confuse or manipulate the vote by citizens.
17)

E. Use of the Legal system and the police powers of the state to intimidate, isolate, or deny rights based on political opinions and affiliation. 18)

And it needs to be understood, that Liberal Democracy does not depend only on a popular vote (as popular votes have elected despots that them eliminated free voting, such as Adolph Hitler), 19)

nor does it depend on a judiciary (as more often than not, the judiciary has been used to defend and represent the interests of the powerful as in Nazi Germany and Communist Russia) 20)

What guarantees liberal democracy is the tolerance of and protection of dissent, because the majority opinion does not need protection, only the minority opinion does." 21)