Trump's threat to democracy is the heart of Biden's campaign—and Trump's

President Joe Biden is not wasting time on the pretense that Republican primaries are going to produce any opponent other than the man he bested three years ago. In upcoming ads and appearances, Biden is not just campaigning directly against Donald Trump, he’s focusing on one central theme: Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.

As NBC News reports, Biden is preparing a speech to be delivered on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection in which he will make a case that democracy and freedom are under a threat like none the nation has seen in the past. "Our message is clear, and it is simple,” said Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez. “We are running a campaign like the fate of our democracy depends on it. Because it does."

As Biden campaigns on Trump’s unique threat to democracy, there is another candidate who is increasingly centered on the same theme: Trump. In advance of the Iowa caucuses, Trump is leaning into fascist rhetoric, doubling down on phrases lifted from Adolf Hitler, and making clear that he fully intends to ignore the law if he returns to power.

Both sides are making the stakes clear, and the biggest concern might not be America failing to listen … but that it already is.