As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump squared off for their debate on Sept 10, one overriding fact was apparent: America’s democratic institutions are failing, and Donald Trump is a symptom of that failure, as well as the malevolent driver of it.

In Brazil, their ex-president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been exiled from politics for his attempted coup. He cannot run for office until 2030. That is how functioning democracies protect themselves. But ours is not a functioning democracy. It’s a malfunctioning one, teetering on the edge of collapse. And so it was up to Harris to out-perform the reality TV star. And that’s exactly what she did.

Trump’s expertise is performing onscreen, without any concern about the relationship to reality, and so he spouts increasingly deranged and dangerous conspiracy theories, which the media, up to now, has largely chosen to normalize. But Harris, the expert prosecutor, repeatedly related her performance to reality, while also warning that “in this debate tonight, you’re going to hear from the same old, tired playbook, a bunch of lies, grievances and name-calling,” which is exactly what Trump proceeded to do.

“So, I was raised as a middle-class kid,” Harris began. “And I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America.” She went on to highlight her $6,000 child tax credit and $50,000 tax deduction for small business start-ups, in contrast to Trump’s “tax cut for billionaires and big corporations, which will result in $5 trillion to America’s deficit,” plus his “plan that I call the Trump sales tax, which would be a 20% tax on everyday goods that you rely on to get through the month.”

That was a reference to Trump’s tariff plan. Trump falsely claims that tariffs are paid by foreign countries and companies, rather than consumers who buy the goods. It’s one of several big lies that are cornerstones of his campaign, at least four of which came in for a good degree of demolition during the debate.

Above all, Trump persists in the claim of his unique ability to save America from the horribleness that would otherwise engulf it. But, Harris reminded us, this depends on massively forgetting what actually happened when he last had his chance:

“Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. Donald Trump left us the worst public health epidemic in a century. Donald Trump left us the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. And what we have done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess.”

This isn’t just Harris’s point of view we should note. The latest assessment of presidential greatness by political scientists placed Trump solidly dead last, while Biden was rated No. 14.

Three other big lies Trump told in the debate were that immigrants cause massive crime, that everyone wanted Roe v. Wade overturned, and that he wasn’t responsible for the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

Trump fumed about immigration repeatedly, dragging it into his answers or non-answers to multiple different questions throughout the debate. “Do you know that crime in Venezuela and crime in countries all over the world is way down? You know why?” Trump asked, rhetorically, “Because they’ve taken their criminals off the street and they’ve given them to her to put into our country…. Crime here is up and through the roof.”

In fact, Venezeula’s crime rate has been falling since 2017. Its homicide rate fell most dramatically while Trump was in office, from 89 homicides per 100,000 in 2017 to 45.6 in 2020. It dipped slightly in the next two years, before another significant drop down to 26.8. In short, it dropped more than twice as much while Trump was in office than when Biden was.

Meanwhile, here in America, crime rates are falling significantly from the Trump era. Violent crime declined 6% from 2022 to 2023, according to the FBI, while murders declined 13%. Declines continued the first three months of this year: 15% for violent crimes, and 26% for murders. Murder murder rates peaked in 2020, increasing nearly 30% in a single year when Trump was President, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. So the reality of falling crime rates is the exact opposite of the hysterical portrait Trump paints.

When ABC moderator David Muir pointed this out, Trump said the FBI “were defrauding statements. They didn’t include the worst cities.”

“Well, I think this is so rich,” Harris said, “coming from someone who has been prosecuted for national security crimes, economic crimes, election interference, has been found liable for sexual assault and his next big court appearance is in November at his own criminal sentencing.”

But Trump’s wildest immigrant crime claim was promoting the latest rightwing social media lie: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats.” Historically, lies like this have precipitated anti-immigrant violence, even mass murders. And Muir once again stepped into fact-check. “You bring up Springfield, Ohio. And ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

Trump shot back, “Well, I’ve seen people on television,” and Muir responded, “I’m not taking this from television. I’m taking it from the city manager,” meaning what’s been documented, not just someone mouthing off for whatever reason.

While the media has grown ludicrously lax in fact-checking Trump since he left office, a surge of recent criticism seems to have had some effect here, which was all to the good.

But Trump’s big lie about overturning Roe v. Wade was something else. It was wildly unpopular—polls showed 60 to 70% of people opposed — but Trump claimed the exact opposite, “What I did is something for 52 years they’ve been trying to get Roe v. Wade into the states,” he said. “Every legal scholar, every Democrat, every Republican, liberal, conservative, they all wanted this issue to be brought back to the states where the people could vote. And that’s what happened.”

“Well, as I said, you’re going to hear a bunch of lies,” Harris responded. “And that’s not actually a surprising fact. Let’s understand how we got here. Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade. And they did exactly as he intended. And now in over 20 states, there are Trump abortion bans which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide health care. In one state it provides prison for life. Trump’s abortion bans make no exception even for rape and incest, which I understand what that means. A survivor of a crime, a violation of their body, does not have the right to make a decision about what happens to their body next. That is immoral.”

Finally, when the moderators asked about January 6th and his threat to the peaceful transfer of power, Trump pretended to have no responsibility, because of one phrase he chose to highlight: “Peacefully and patriotically, I said during my speech. Not later on. Peacefully and patriotically,” glossing over the main thrust of his speech, urging his followers to “fight like hell, or you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

He then quickly changed the subject back to immigration again—“What about all the people that are pouring into our country and killing people?”—using one big lie to cover up another. He then added further lies, blaming Nancy Pelosi for the lack of troops protecting Congress. “I wasn’t responsible for security,” he lied. “Nancy Pelosi was responsible. She didn’t do her job.”

When Harris finally got a chance to respond, she was crystal clear— both on what happened then and what it means now and for our future:

I was at the Capitol on January 6th. I was the Vice President-Elect. I was also an acting senator. I was there. And on that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation’s Capitol, to desecrate our nation’s Capitol. On that day, 140 law enforcement officers were injured. And some died. And understand, the former president has been indicted and impeached for exactly that reason. But this is not an isolated situation. Let’s remember Charlottesville, where there was a mob of people carrying tiki torches, spewing antisemitic hate, and what did the president then at the time say? There were fine people on each side. Let’s remember that when it came to the Proud Boys, a militia, the president said, the former president said, “Stand back and stand by.” So for everyone watching who remembers what January 6th was, I say we don’t have to go back. Let’s not go back. We’re not going back. It’s time to turn the page. And if that was a bridge too far for you, well, there is a place in our campaign for you. To stand for the country. To stand for our democracy. To stand for the rule of law. And to end the chaos. And to end the approach that is about attacking the foundations of our democracy ’cause you don’t like the outcome. And be clear on that point. Donald Trump the candidate has said in this election there will be a bloodbath if this — and the outcome of this election is not to his liking. Let’s turn the page on this. Let’s not go back. Let’s chart a course for the future and not go backward to the past.

That, in its essence, is what this election is all about. Not about this or that policy, but about whether we’ll continue to be a democracy so that we can debate policies in the future. That’s not something Harris can do by herself, not even by winning the election. But she did make the choice of direction crystal clear. It’s now up to all of us to follow it.