Vice President Harris is correct despair is the enemy of democracy. Fear is the tool of the would-be authoritarian to end a democracy. Trump demonstrates this on multiple levels. The ex-president uses fear as a motivator to get people to vote for him. Trump’s message to voters is almost entirely fear based, but there is another fear-based component. Donald Trump also uses fear as a weapon against democracy. Trump wants his opponents to despair and feel hopeless. He is seeking to demoralize those who support democracy so that they don’t show up at the polls, and they don’t get involved.