Americans have given their lives in war for the sake of democracy for over 200 years. Dissidents around the world have stood in front of tanks, spent lifetimes in prison, and laid down their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor for democracy.

To save democracy today, journalists, commentators, and rank-and-file Democrats have a much easier task: Do not ask questions of or about Vice President Kamala Harris, do pretend her bad ideas are good, and keep all your reservations and concerns to yourself until after Election Day.

“We have to defeat a person that is a threat to democracy of a kind we have not seen,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) intoned during the Democratic National Convention. “The times have found us to save our democracy.”

Saving our democracy requires shielding Harris from any scrutiny, which, in turn, requires making sure she never articulates policy positions. Democrats had lots of fun attacking Project 2025, which created a vulnerability for former President Donald Trump because policy proposals always create vulnerabilities. Democrats’ not-so-secret plan is to avoid explaining how she would govern were she elected. It’s an odd idea of democracy — don’t tell the people what they’re voting for — but it’s evidently the predominant notion of democracy in the Democratic Party, the news media, and academia today.

“Dem lawmakers want to wait until after Harris wins to set policy agenda,” Politico explained in mid-August. “Kamala Harris is running on policy vibes. And most Democrats are fine with that.”

Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH) discouraged Harris from articulating any policy positions. “I don’t think there’s a real strong reason for her to try to weed out any points of view right now,” Kuster said.

The Democratic Party unity on this anti-accountability effort is pretty impressive.

“What’s incredible,” Politico’s Jonathan Martin noted, “is the party is so united that they have given her a pass effectively to reinvent herself whole cloth from her 2019 ill-fated bid for the presidency. … The party just wants to beat Trump, and so, of course, they’re fine with that and are not going to say a peep about it.”

Martin’s observation is obviously and undeniably true, but it doesn’t reflect well on Harris. Thus, Martin is guilty of undermining democracy and so incurred the wrath of the online Left. Keith Olbermann, among others, attacked Martin on social media for admitting it.

The thing is that Harris’s more honest supporters have admitted as much. “The more details you share, the more your policies get picked apart,” Democratic operative Kaivan Shroff told ABC News. “But what [Kamala] is saying is … she trusts journalists to explain these policies and our values to folks. When that happens, it will be successful for Democrats.”

Many in the media are, sure enough, playing along.

For instance, when Harris failed to explain how she would pay for her massive explosion in federal spending, liberal author and columnist James Surowiecki applauded her evasions.

“This is a perfectly fine answer,” Surowiecki insisted. “If someone asks you how you’re going to pay for your policy proposals, talking about them as investments that will yield a high [return on investment] is smart. And in this case, the repetition of ‘return on investment’ is message discipline, not word salad.”

Journalists are supposed to evaluate the veracity and plausibility of politicians’ statements. In 2024, many have decided instead that their job is to applaud Democrats’ “message discipline,” which is, of course, a euphemism for “bullshit.”

But journalists increasingly applaud Harris and her party for what they deem to be politically savvy bullshit.

For instance, a rumor flew around the DNC on its final day that a “special guest” would be part of the program. Everyone speculated Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and Steph Curry. In the end, there was no special guest.

Political newsletter Punch Bowl covered the nonevent thus: “My Theory? Convention staffers started the rumor just to gin up extra interest and attention on the prime-time program. Which, honestly, good job guys.”

When you’re a Democrat, lying for political gain wins applause from the political press.

Academics are also getting behind this effort to obfuscate for democracy.

“The paramount objective for Kamala Harris is to win this election,” Stanford political scientist Michael McFaul explained. “If a press conference helps her win, she should do it. If not, she shouldn’t do it. It’s just that simple. She has no ‘moral obligation’ to talk to the press. Tone it down folks.”

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Tone it down folks means election season is about ensuring the “right side” wins.

If this is what our democracy defenders look like, maybe democracy really is in danger.