Democracy is supposed to mean each side presenting their policies, and making arguments for them, and then an educated and scientifically literal public makes up their mind. There is a vote. The majority wins, and the result is fair.
Is this what is happening in the US Presidential elections? Manifestly not. The Democrats in particular are using any possible mechanism they can. These include weaponising the judicial system, media smears and charater assasination. Even their more positive lines are not really about policy; for example they are making a big play for the women’s vote, but this is not based on policy proposals which would favour women, it is based on portraying their opponent as a threat to women. I don’t watch American TV but I can see that much, probably most, political TV ads are ‘attack ads’, pointing to some negative point about their opponent.
The media seem to go along with this. Maybe, the candidates are making serious policy speeches, and they are not being reported, but, I doubt it.
It is hard to see that this process is healthy. Indeed, each side accuses the other of being ‘divisive’ but this is true of both sides. This seems to be a built-in weakness of democracy. It assumes people will take it seriously and ‘debate the issues’. But, the democrats in particular, have discovered that there is no need to ‘play fair’. The result is a very unedifying spectacle. It is hard to see the value in this process. If the process is that every four years there is an orgy of insults, hate and each potential leader denigrating the character of the other, is that something positive for society?