Journalist Barton Gellman’s cover story for the January/February issue of The Atlantic paints a frightening portrait of the GOP’s attempts to undermine democracy. He writes:

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.

Gellman underscores the deception required to pull off such a slow-moving coup:

By way of foundation for all the rest, Trump and his party have convinced a dauntingly large number of Americans that the essential workings of democracy are corrupt, that made-up claims of fraud are true, that only cheating can thwart their victory at the polls, that tyranny has usurped their government, and that violence is a legitimate response.

We highly recommend reading Gellman’s full piece, which reports that the “clown car legal team” responsible for Trump’s failed attempts to overthrow the 2020 election is being replaced by “top-tier” law firms with “dark money” backing. We also encourage you to watch his recent interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, which is posted above.