Question Author
"Nor is fighting a No Deal Brexit "thwarting" democracy."
But it clearly is. Brexit, deal or no deal, is what was voted for. Any attempt to prevent that, regardless if the tactic is forever extensions and never ending yaw yaw, is thwarting the democratic decision.
"Leave campaigners never wanted it in 2016; political parties weren't campaigning for it in 2017"
Of course not. The campaign was remain or leave. The way we actually left wasn't relevant, and clearly in the absence of a deal it would inevitably be no-deal. One assumed and trusted there wouldn't be tactics employed to ensure no acceptable deal would be considered, but the reality was that the EU refused to accept basic red lines and thus forced it.
"and Parliament has rejected it three times."
Parliament was obliged to reject the so called deal May came back with since it was a remain deal not a leave one. They had no right to reject a no deal exit as they were given no mandate to use it's possibility to thwart Brexit.
"Even now Boris Johnson is mainly trying to use it as a threat to gain leverage -- or, at least, that is what he claims."
Indeed, but we all know that the EU is likely to remain determined to thwart Brexit deals in the hope that the MPs who reject democracy can prevent it. So it's other, and most likely to be in practice, use is to end the antics of the EU, and their UK parliamentary supporters, and just exit, as we are well overdue to do.