January 6 may be only a preview of a deeper democratic rupture

If January 6, 2021, was just one infamous day in history, its stain on the American story would still reverberate through generations.

But the US Capitol insurrection was far from a self-contained day of rage. It was both the culmination of the rule of an aberrant, demagogic President and a catalyst for the most enduring onslaught on America's system of elective governance in decades. It legitimized violence as a tool of political expression among millions of citizens and cast the haunting possibility that as horrific as that day was, it may be only a preview of a deeper democratic rupture to come.

The aftermath of hours of terror ignited by Donald Trump inciting a mob to "fight like hell" to deny the will of voters revealed that large chunks of the Republican Party had rejected the principle of an expansive, unified democracy for which its first President, Abraham Lincoln, had died. Far from destroying the mythology of Trumpism, Republicans clambered onto the metaphorical wreckage in the Capitol to launch a nationwide voter-suppression scheme that could make it easier to steal future elections without the need for a baying mob to storm the Capitol.