President Joe Biden likes to say that we are locked in a global battle pitting democracy against autocracy.
In Seattle last week, he described a phone conversation he'd had with Xi Jinping in which the Chinese leader argued that democracy doesn't work anymore. Among other things, Xi said, democracy requires consensus, and mustering a consensus takes too long in a fast-moving world. Only autocracies are equipped to meet the extraordinary challenges of modern times.
Biden, as he does every time he tells the story, dismissed the idea that democracy is passé or unworkable.
