How Autocrats Subvert Elections: Resistance to Trump and Trumpism [Hardcover]

Chronicling and analyzing resistance to the threat that autocracy poses to American liberal democracy, this book provides the definitive account of the response to the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol and Republican efforts to overturn the 2020 election and bias future elections in their favor.

Richard L. Abel is Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor, UCLA, USA.

Chronicling and analyzing resistance to the threat that autocracy poses to American liberal democracy, this book provides the definitive account of the response to the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol and Republican efforts to overturn the 2020 election and bias future elections in their favor.

In December 2020, Donald Trump invited supporters to DC for what he promised would be a wild demonstration against Bidens victory. On January 6, 2021, he directed the mob he had summoned to march on the Capitol, where it ransacked the building, caused five deaths and hundreds of injuries, and delayed but failed to prevent certification of the election. Although some Congressional Republicans briefly distanced themselves from Trump, the party quickly closed ranks around him. The business community, similarly, initially expressed criticism but soon resumed campaign contributions to Republicans. Democrats sought to impeach Trump (for the second time), but Republicans blocked conviction. Democrats created a House Select Committee, which exposed Trumps complicity through dramatic televised hearings and a comprehensive report. Republicans responded by denying there had been a riotone calling it a mere tourist visitand sanctifying those arrested. Nevertheless, all but two of the nearly 1,400 charged were convicted. Judges appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents harshly condemned the insurrectionists, imposing sentences that did not vary by the judges plã§