The Atlantic

The Capitol Riot Was Prologue

In this month’s newsletter: a crisis for American democracy. Plus: a Q&A with George Packer, and a selection of must-read stories from the past several weeks.
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The Capitol Riot Was Prologue

Donald Trump’s battle cry of insurrection—“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore”—didn’t strike me at first as a four-horsemen moment for American democracy. This was a failure of imagination on my part. To be fair, I was busy trying not to catch the coronavirus. For most of Trump’s January 6 speech I was 100 yards or so from the stage, and my best guess is that only 5 percent of his supporters were masked. In, a cul-de-sac of berserk anti-maskers. They were angry at Joe Biden, exceedingly angry at Mike Pence, and also a bit peeved at me.

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