Pieces of U.S. democracy that are still intact post-January 6, 2021

Lots in U.S. democracy is broken. Some things are still working. A couple passages from How Civil Wars Start by Barbara Walter.

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   "A few of the guardrails that protect democracy remained firm in the face of challenges. Though Trump and the Republic Party filed more than sixty lawsuits claiming election fraud in swing states, more than fifty of those were dismissed or denied (the handful that did make it through were overturned in higher courts). The Supreme Court, which has a majority of conservative judges, also rejected Trump's election challenge. Republican state officials on the receiving end of the president's bullying — Trump threatened to sideline Arizona's governor for certifying election results and pressured Georgia's secretary of state to 'find' the votes he'd need to win — held their ground.
    So, too, did the military. Trump catered to America's generals throughout his time in office, but rather than validate his bids for more power, they distanced themselves from his agenda at key moments."

Furthermore:

"On January 6, after the Capitol was again secure, members of Congress immediately returned to work. They certified the results of the election, ensuring a peaceful transfer of power and safeguarding the rule of law. The FBI immediately launched investigations into the rioters, filing its first conspiracy charge against the leader of the Oath Keepers."

Barbara F. Walter. How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them. New York: Crown, 2022.

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Some have criticized the speed of the investigation under U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland. But another possible source of blame is that Mike Sherwin, who served during the Trump administration, appointed by Bill Barr — and then the interpretation becomes that Garland had to work to sort things out and start up the investigation again by appointing prosecutor Thomas Windom.

According to Jared Yates Sexton: "The prevailing narrative" of January 6 that came out of the House select committee (for example) was "boiled down" to tell us that Donald Trump and his allies engaged in a conspiracy. But "it goes so much deeper than that. It's so much more complicated than that." If you examine "the conventional understanding...underneath the headlines," you develop a perspective and a more complex narrative. Government institutions could have been in on January 6 plots too. But we may never find out what happened, as the government would have no interest in publicly revealing it.
(listen to 49:00–50:00, 51:00–52:45 in this podcast episode, August 11, 2023)

Arizona

In 2020, Arizona state Sen. Anthony Kern was

"one of 11 prominent Republicans who posed as Arizona electors and signed a false 'Certificate of the Votes of the 2020 Electors from Arizona,' which incorrectly stated that Trump had won Arizona’s presidential election. Fake electors who pulled the same move in Michigan, Georgia and Nevada currently face criminal charges, while fake Trump electors in Wisconsin settled a lawsuit agreeing that they were 'part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results.'"

In 2024, he introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 1014, which proposes that "the [Arizona] Legislature, and no other official, shall appoint presidential electors." Not the voters; the legislature. When the HuffPost asked him for comment, he insulted the journalist and said the news outlet "is an enemy of the American people."

But look at this

The attack on the Capitol didn't persuade any 2020 Trump supporters not to support him again in 2024.

"According to the Times/Siena poll, Trump has the support of 97% of people who say they voted for him in the 2020 election, while Biden is winning just 83% of his voters from four years ago. Ten percent of the 2020 Biden voters said they would now vote for Trump, the poll found."
— Poll: Strong Disapproval Of Biden's Leadership Hits All-Time High Among Voters: The New York Times/Siena College survey showed that 47% of respondents "strongly disapprove" of President Joe Biden's handling of his job. Sebastian Murdock, HuffPost, Mar 2, 2024

To read more — especially about what is not working in U.S. democracy — please see "The United States is an 'Anocracy'". It's a 4-minute read on Medium. Medium lets you read a certain number of stories for free every month. You may also consider a paid membership on the platform.