| Sumario: | This article examines ways that politicians undermine democratic institutions and processes in the contemporary wave of democratic backsliding. Many scholars point to populism as the explanation, but we argue that populism is inadequate and that the study of democratic backsliding would benefit from analysis of campaign messaging. We offer rhetorical delegitimization to better identify arguments from elites that have the communicative force to fundamentally destabilize democratic institutions by changing the public imaginary about the philosophical ideal. We analyze social media messages by Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders during the 2020 U.S. presidential election campaign and their populist appeals. We demonstrate the limits of populism and justify the need for a concept to better capture systematic destructing arguments about democratic processes, institutions, and opponents. We draw connections between Trump's campaign messaging in 2020 and his acts once elected in 2024 to show that democratic backsliding can be predicted from campaign messaging.
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