Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun
January 6 was practice. Donald Trump’s GOP is much better positioned to subvert the next election.
January/February 2022
In This Issue
Trump’s next coup, the myth of voter fraud, Peter Meijer’s lonely stand, and what happened to American conservatism. Plus moral panic, Johnny Cash, U.S. money laundering, Milton, civil-war prophecies, Hanya Yanagihara’s latest, and more.
Cover Story
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A Party, and Nation, in Crisis
The GOP’s leaders are attempting to destroy the foundations of American democracy.
Features
Kholood Eid for The Atlantic What the GOP Does to Its Own Dissenters
After January 6, Peter Meijer thought he could help lead the Republican Party away from an abyss. Now he laughs at his own naïveté.
Illustration by Vanessa Saba. Sources: Anton Petrus / Getty; Harold M. Lambert / Getty; Jens Kalaene / Picture Alliance / Getty; Stephen Maturen / Getty The Great (Fake) Child-Sex-Trafficking Epidemic
Dispatches from a moral panic
Photograph by Yael Malka for The Atlantic When the Myth of Voter Fraud Comes for You
To support the Republican narrative that our elections are rife with misconduct, someone needs to take the fall.
Illustration by Michael Houtz. Sources: Stefani Reynolds / CNP / Bloomberg / Getty; Sepia Times / Universal Images Group / Getty What Happened to American Conservatism?
The rich philosophical tradition I fell in love with has been reduced to Fox News and voter suppression.
Dispatches
Danielle Del Plato Are We Doomed?
To head off the next insurrection, we’ll need to practice envisioning the worst.
Peter van Agtmael / Magnum The Power of Trump’s Magnetism in One Photo
Capturing the intensity of a crowd’s adulation
Culture & Critics
Illustration by Paul Spella. Sources: Chris Hellier / Corbis / Getty Rewriting the Book of Genesis
Cast into political exile, and into darkness by his failing eyesight, John Milton was determined to accomplish “things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.”
John R. Hamilton / Trunk Archive The Impossible Politics of Johnny Cash
He was beloved by Americans who could agree on little else. Was he too eager to please?
Michael George Haddad Beware Prophecies of Civil War
The idea that such a catastrophe is unavoidable in America is inflammatory and corrosive.
Illustration by Soomyeong Kim Fiction Meets Chaos Theory
Hanya Yanagihara’s new novel tweaks American history and traces the disorienting consequences.
Illustration by Javier Jaén The Kleptocrats Next Door
The United States has a dirty-money problem.
Departments
The Atlantic The Commons: The Men Who Are Killing America's Newspapers
Readers respond to our November 2021 cover story and more.
Tim Lahan An Ode to America
You’re better than this, sweet land of liberty.
Poetry
Gabriela Pesqueira / The Atlantic
