The Threat to Democracy Is Not Over
An investigation into and an analysis of the January 6 insurrection and what it means for our democracy
“Among the most frightening images on Jan. 6 were those drawn from the American past — the Confederate flag, the makeshift gallows set up outside the Capitol. Today most of us recoil from the idea of the lynch mob. We forget that for much of our history it was deemed an honorable form of justice, the code of the frontier and the segregated South.” —Sam Tanenhaus, opinion piece in the Washington Post
The Revolution Was Televised
From the New York Times comes a forty-minute visual investigation into the insurrection, which sequences footage taken on January 6, 2021, and was completed after six months of intensive reporting:
The Shape of Things to Come
On December 6, the Atlantic published the online version of an article appearing in print in the January/February 2022 issue. “Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun” provides a chilling look at the how Republicans are rehearsing (in plain sight) the overthrow of future elections to secure the presidency in 2024 . In this urgent, cogent analysis, author Barton Gellman summarizes the political landscape in which the January 6 insurrection was (and continues to be) forged:
For more than a year now, with tacit and explicit support from their party’s national leaders, state Republican operatives have been building an apparatus of election theft. Elected officials in Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and other states have studied Donald Trump’s crusade to overturn the 2020 election. They have noted the points of failure and have taken concrete steps to avoid failure next time.
The article also examines the mindset of the tens of millions of people who believe the election was stolen (and that insurgents are patriot martyrs), fear that white people are being “replaced” by people of color, and who agree with violent political rhetoric. Gellman also writes about the steadfast Republican machine and its tactics of voter suppression as well detailing each strategy taken by the Trump administration to decertify the 2020 election. While Trump’s attempted coup failed, it empowered him and his followers, Gellman warns.
Webinar on December 13, 2021, 11:00 am EST: The Big Story: Join author Barton Gellman, along with staff writer and historian Anne Applebaum and Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, for a live virtual conversation about the threats to American democracy.