Yale Historian Explains Why the 'Worst' Attacks on Our Democracy Are 'Yet to Come' in Chilling OpEd

The events of January 6—when former President Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election culminated in pro-Trump extremists mounting a deadly failed insurrection against the United States Capitol—will forever be seared in the memory of American history.

The attack came after months of Trump and his allies promoting fantasies that the 2020 election was "stolen" from him through widespread election fraud staged by Democrats. Trump repeatedly pressured elected officials from Georgia's Republican secretary of state to his own Vice President, urging them to overturn the results of a valid election.

Thankfully, they all refused.

But now, in an op-ed for the Washington Post, Yale history professor Joanne B. Freeman writes that the attacks on American democracy haven't stopped with the insurrection—and that they're likely to get worse.

In the op-ed, titled Jan. 6 crossed a line. We need to say so before it’s too late for democracy., Freeman notes the multiple voter suppression laws passed or considered by Republican state legislatures, as well as the erosion of public faith in American democracy for the millions of Americans who still believe Trump's election lies.

She says a step toward solving this crisis can be taken with accountability for the insurrection, writing:

"Some members of Congress are leery of an investigation and its implications, but their silence comes at great cost. Although accountability won’t single-handedly end our current crisis, its absence virtually guarantees more of the same. With no clear line in the sand, the attack on democracy will continue, unchecked and empowered, with the worst yet to come."

Others concurred.

They also agreed that democracy is still under attack, and that action must be taken.