American democracy is in crisis. Barton Gellman goes in-depth in this special edition of The Atlantic that raises the alarm, describing in painstaking detail the authoritarian shift in our politics and the dismantling of our democracy that right now is taking place. Please read the January/February special issue of the magazine on this enveloping crisis, and let’s muster the will to do more at this momentous time to defend and expand our hard-fought right to vote.

“The next attempt to overthrow a national election may not qualify as a coup. It will rely on subversion more than violence, although each will have its place. If the plot succeeds, the ballots cast by American voters will not decide the presidency in 2024. Thousands of votes will be thrown away, or millions, to produce the required effect. The winner will be declared the loser. The loser will be certified president-elect.

The prospect of this democratic collapse is not remote. People with the motive to make it happen are manufacturing the means. Given the opportunity, they will act. They are acting already. Who or what will safeguard our constitutional order is not apparent today. It is not even apparent who will try.”

Find out more about the current state of our American democracy in Barton Gellman’s cover story for The Atlantic: “January 6 was practice.”

-Alec White and Kandea Mosley Gandhi