This Blogger is a regular viewer of MSNBC and THE VIEW; one is struck by the evolution of the phrase: “ In 2024, American Democracy is at stake.”. It went   from a pedestrian statement into a divine incantation.  The MSNBC apparatchiks believe it is such a powerful incantation that they use it in exorcisms of Trump supporters.  How important is Democracy to the survival of the  Republic?  When our ancestors were sitting around smelly, filthy and nasty caves, gutting dead mastodons; they started to form  extended families; which led to clans; which led to tribes.  They took that evolution for survival, in a dangerous world. When the concept  of a State showed up; to ask our ancestors to give up their natural God given rights to the State, they did so, not for democracy but for safety, survival in a dangerous world. As the State matured; so, did the concept of Territoriality; that the tribes had a right to their caves, their lands, their savannahs, ...