The fundamental feature of democracy is that it gives people a way to address their grievances that doesn’t require violence. This, in turn, provides for peacef

The fundamental feature of democracy is that it gives people a way to address their grievances that doesn’t require violence. This, in turn, provides for peaceful transitions of power and overall political stability. For democracy to accomplish this does not actually require that it represent the people. It only requires that the people believe that nonviolent change can occur. Having a democracy that really is representative of the people and can accomplish good things is, of course, very nice to have. But it’s a secondary goal. This is why I view Trump as much worse than W Bush even though W was objectively worse on most metrics (like people killed for no good reason). For all his faults, W respected the system. Trump’s hints that he wouldn’t accept the outcome of an election he lost are, in the long run, far more dangerous.