Attempts to overthrow the presidential election threaten democracy. What can we do about it?

There’s new evidence of how far the Trump administration was willing to go to overthrow the 2020 election.

“It revealed a willingness on the part of mainstream characters in one of the two major parties to go along with what is essentially an authoritarian and antidemocratic movement,” Mike Dorf, a law professor, says.

What does it mean for American democracy?

“The United States is not immune to democratic backsliding,” political scientist Suzanne Mettler says. “It has happened here before, so we need to take it really seriously.”

Today, On Point: What almost happened to this country’s democracy, and what could happen next.

Guests

Neil Buchanan, professor at the University of Florida Law School. (@NeilHBuchanan)

Suzanne Mettler, professor of political science at Cornell University. (@SuzanneMettler1)

Anna Grzymala-Busse, professor of international studies and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University. (@AnnaGBusse)

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR)

From The Reading List

The Atlantic: “The Biggest Threat to Democracy Is the GOP Stealing the Next Election” — “The greatest threat to American democracy today is not a repeat of January 6, but the possibility of a stolen presidential election.”

The Boston Globe: “How to prevent the legal strategy that nearly undid the last election from ending democracy” — “At the Jan. 6 rally preceding the assault on the Capitol, Rudolph Giuliani called for ‘trial by combat.’ The next speaker was John Eastman. He praised Giuliani’s remarks and then made fantastic claims of voter fraud, including that ‘secret folders’ of ballots were deployed to deny Donald Trump reelection.”

This article was originally published on WBUR.org. [Copyright 2021 NPR]