The imperfect democracy that the US has is our only avenue for addressing the injustices and threats we now face. With Republicans dead-set on negating it, we must now defend it.

There are two kinds of criticism of American democracy: the kind that accepts democracy in principle, and the kind that rejects it. We are all aware of the flaws in the way the democratic system functions in the US, and of campaigns to fix them.

What is shocking is the existence of progressives who reject democracy in principle. What do they imagine as a better alternative?

Sanders and Democrats in Congress call for publication of the wrecker's secret vaccine contracts.

North Carolina thugs shot Andrew Brown in the back of the head as he was driving away from them.

The FBI is going to investigate the thugs' actions.

The thugs were carrying body cameras but the thug department seems reluctant to show the video.

Florida is still working on a voter-suppression bill.

The prohibition on handing out food or water to people waiting on long voting lines (themselves a consequence of voter-suppression measures) may be omitted.

The copyright industry is lobbying the WTO against an exception to vaccine patents.

Since copyrights and patents are independent laws, different on every detail, why would the copyright industry care about this question? I think it is the result of lumping these and other unrelated laws together under the umbrella term "intellectual property". That is meant to teach people to imagine a mythical principle of "intellectual property," which is so important that it overrides practical needs of whatever kind.

The world would be better off if we eliminate patents entirely. We should do so, in software and in general.

I do not advocate entirely eliminating copyright — rather, reducing it to some extent.

But we should entirely reject the term and myth of "intellectual property."