Eight years on from Donald Trump’s descent down the escalator, the democratic doom boom in American commentary shows little sign of dissipating. “Democratic backsliding,” a term originating in comparative political science, is in the popular lexicon. The existence of a democratic “crisis” in the United States is now presumed across a wide swath of political takes (mine included). The January 6 insurrection marked an explosive denouement to Trump’s shambolic tenure, while the partisan response to