The acute crisis confronting American democracy right now is caused by a movement within one of the nation's two major political parties. This movement is appropriately called "election denialism"—meaning that its adherents are willing to deny the lawfully determined outcome of an election if their candidate is the one who lost. The election denialist movement within the Republican Party, led by former president Donald Trump, is seeking to gain control over the institutions and procedures that determine the outcome of future elections. If election denialists prevail in this effort at taking control, self-government—whether one calls it "republicanism" or "democracy"—will no longer be possible. Ultimately, self-government depends on the lawfully determined winners of elections taking office based on those electoral results, and election denialism strikes at the heart of that most basic premise.
