Is Democracy Actually at Risk in the 2024 Elections? | CLIP | Live With Josh

[Music] [Applause] welcome to Crossroads in today's episode we'll be talking about whether democracy is actually at risk in the 2024 elections not just for the us but apparently like 70% of the countries in the world news outlets are suggesting right now the big corporate media that 2024 could be the global end of democracy as we know it and uncensored news and information is Being Framed as risks to This Global democracy what is actually happening well let's discuss look a new narrative is being rolled out in the debates over the 2024 US presidential elections after President Biden called former president Trump a threat to democracy in a recent speech I know he's been saying this a lot but there's a recent one corporate news outlets began publishing a a steady stream of articles based on this narrative now look if we go by Bloomberg it appears that the elections themselves are a threat to democracy at least how they're saying it Bloomberg said this 2024 is the year of Elections and that's a threat to democracy hear that the year of Elections is a threat to democracy what do they mean well they claim this they say so where does that leave us today look at the world in 2024 and it is almost a mirror image of 2016 according to these two individuals they're siding and they continue by stating The Longshot unthinkables from eight years ago are now the F The Firm favorites were even just the accepted status quo odds makers put Trump's re-election chances at close to 40% with Joe Biden nearly 10 percentage points back it notes as well for the in that 41% of of the world's population is having major elections Sorry probably 41% not 70 and they say yay democracy right and they say not really what with extremist populist parties mostly right-wing On The Rise everywhere from European Union to the Pacific Rim let me just dig into this a bit all right they're they're saying that the elections happening and again 41% of the world right now are themselves a threat to democracy Now how is an election a threat to democracy I don't know given the fact that you're talking about the Democratic process through which people elect their leaders and they note that well what is this big threat and then they start talking directly about well uh the threat is uh similar situation to 2016 as they note it is almost a mirror image of 2016 what does that mean that was of course the year that Donald J Trump was elected president of the United States and they note that the essential threat to democracy they're talking about is the potential reality that Trump could be reelected again chances that close to 40% is they're noting and they note as well that the big problem the world is facing with this Global threat to democracy and the possible end to democracy itself is not an actual end to democracy but instead that the election process may elect people who are what they say extremist populist parties mostly right-wing in other words they're saying it's a threat to Global democracy because conservatives may actually win some some places this year that's what they're saying further in they say as for Europe John and Adrien warned that in a terrifying number of cases terrifying candidates who would have been seen as extremist wild cards in 2016 look the strongest with likely advances in the European Parliament Austria Portugal and Germany and what do they mean by this these extremist wild cards who would have seen them as such well mostly just the big corporate press and of course the left wi which frames the right wing as extremist and you know being fair the right wi frames the left wing is a pretty extreme also depends which side you're on now look imagine that allowing people to vote in an election is a threat to democracy briefly I would agree with them on one point which is that they say the elections in Taiwan do represent a threat to democracy I would agree with that you know I'm actually in Taiwan reporting live right now I'll be here till next Tuesday look if one party wants to fold to the Chinese Communist Party acknowledging or saying that they're not even a country essentially that's one of the big arguments in Taiwan interestingly with their political debates right now one party has been talking about you know Independence that Taiwan is a Sovereign Nation and the Chinese Communist party is taken uh taken some issue with that because the CCP regards Taiwan as being part of China and the other party the kmt the kuming tong is saying that the DPP the Democratic Progressive Party suggest or saying that Taiwan is a country is provoking China and this is leading the country towards the possibility of War um if you're if you're political position is arguing that you can't even call yourself a country I'd say that does possibly represent the end of democracy especially if it means a gradual moving towards being under the CCP which is a communist country so in a real sense I would agree on that that um in Taiwan you might you might actually see a real end to democracy but that's not an extremist right-wing position that's a communist position and you know if people vote to end their country that's uh that is an end to democracy at least for Taiwan but the issue in my opinion taking this broader context of what this news piece is actually talking about and notably what a lot of other media are saying right now not just about Taiwan but about the United States Europe and a lot of other countries on Earth the big issue in my opinion is that this Bloomberg piece and interestingly again many many others being published by other outlets almost just like this very recently are grouping all of these political leaders you know into the same camp who just simply in most cases oppose far-left policies and personally I don't think they're actually talking about democracy when they're saying that these folks are a threat to democracy I don't think by any means that Trump is a threat to democracy I don't think that um a lot of the other conservative politicians coming in are threats to democracy in fact in Europe most of the right-wing you know political leaders are still pretty staying far left it's just that they maybe oppose you know open borders and so on like that but they're saying this is a threat to democracy they're talking about the threat of actual democracy right they're talking about this to the current status quo of the political establishment they're suggesting that if you oppose these you know the transs agenda or the you know very woke agenda sweeping the world right now or you just believe a country should have functioning borders then you're an extremist and a threat to democracy this is the unfortunate way this narrative is being spun and look it's not just Bloomberg's opinion writers saying this either you know you could say oh it's just Bloomberg and one person's opinion it's not just them there's been a whole lot of Articles almost within a very short time span saying almost the exact same thing I'm just going to show you some of these look the Atlantic claims that democracy may not even survive this time around democracy might die in darkness as the Washington Post would suggest but the Atlantic says this they're saying lots of people will vote this we this year that does not mean democracy Will Survive and they say voting will take place in more than 60 countries this year an unprecedented number containing roughly half of the global population but even with all this voting democracy is under severe threat endangered by predatory politicians who rig elections and disgruntled voters willing to hand over power to autocratic leaders imagine folks a political party willing to rig elections what would the world do if a political party were to rig an election gee uh have we seen such a thing before the Atlantic is saying maybe not but it might just happen and they're saying that the most pivotal elections will take place in November well election in November being the US election and they're saying that's when the world's most powerful democracy the United States are suggesting decides whether to turn itself over to an avowedly authoritarian demagogue there of course referring to Donald J Trump now I don't personally know if Donald Trump is an avowedly authoritarian demagogue but this is journalism according to the Atlantic and look you know imagine that but uh when have we ever seen the rigging of Elections and I would I would agree that if you rig an election you are a threat to democracy maybe we've seen that before I don't know maybe that the threats to democracy are already in existence and uh you know it depends on which side of the Alle you're on and I'd say also you know I'd agree that if you weaponize the justice system to go after your political opponents you might just be an avowedly authoritarian demagogue but again this is a is a question of basic reality they're they're raising here they're saying this is not a problem yet but it could be and so to prevent the threat to democracy we need to eliminate the Democratic process through which people can choose to vote for the person they want to by striking that person's name from the ballot itself only by not allowing people to engage in democracy can we save democracy this is what they're saying in my opinion