Washington: One year after thousands of his supporters stormed the US Capitol,Donald Trump plans to mark the anniversary on January 6 with a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

It will be no mea culpa.

In a statement issued before Christmas,the former president made it clear that he would use the event to reassert his false claim that the election was “stolen”,and launch yet another attack on the bipartisan select House committee investigating the incident.

“Until then,remember,the insurrection took place on November 3rd,” Trump said,referencing the day of the 2020 election.

“It was the completely unarmed protest of the rigged election that took place on January 6th.”

The insurgency left several people dead,about 150 police officers injured and a nation shocked and divided.

But there is every reason to think that the January 6 attack was just the beginning for Donald Trump and his allies – and this time,they’re much better organised.

Twelve months after America’s chamber of democracy was stormed by the foot soldiers of a president trying to cling to power at any cost,Trumpists and partisan state legislatures are now working to undermine election processes right across the US.

They’re much less violent than an angry mob descending on Congress after being told to “fight like hell” – but far more insidious,strategic,and potentially damaging to democracy in the longer term.

Indeed,by last month,at least 262 bills had been introduced in 41 states that would interfere with election administration,according to a joint report released by States United,Law Forward,and Protect Democracy – three non-partisan groups seeking to enhance election security.

Choking the vote

Among them are a raft of voter suppression laws that will constrain the ability of millions of Americans to vote early,through the mail,or on Election Day itself.

Take the sunbelt state of Texas,which already had some of the nation’s toughest voting constraints. It has now introduced a ban on overnight early voting hours and drive-through voting — both of which have proved popular among voters of colour.

In Kansas,people could face criminal charges for returning advance ballots on behalf of voters who need help,such as people with disabilities. In Georgia,people can now be charged with a crime for giving food and water to people waiting in line to vote.

Electoral boundaries have also been redrawn to give Republicans the edge in new districts ahead of this year’s crucial midterm elections. Both parties have a history of gerrymandering maps to improve their Congress numbers,but the Republicans have been more successful in recent decades.

And despite losing dozens of legal challenges centred on the baseless claim of a fraudulent result,Trump and his supporters are now working to elect proponents of the myth to powerful positions at state and national level.

If elected,these candidates,who say the 2020 presidential election was stolen,could have significant sway to help overturn the next presidential election result.

Little wonder democracy groups,politics academics,and former military leaders are warning about America being on the brink of a constitutional crisis.

“The fight of our lives right now,of this generation,has to be to secure voting rights and to secure a peaceful transition of power. That should not be a partisan issue,” renowned presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin,told CNN this week.

RINOs and revenge

In Alaska,Trump is seeking to oust moderate Republican senator Liz Murkowski by backing her primary challenger Kelly Tshibaka,a former state bureaucrat who has promoted Trump’s theory of election fraud.

In Michigan,the former president has put his weight behind state politician Steve Carra,who led the local push for an audit of the 2020 election results,over veteran congressman Fred Upton,who voted for Trump’s impeachment.

And in the state of Wyoming,Trump has endorsed local lawyer Harriet Hagemen in her GOP bid to unseat fellow Republican Liz Cheney,the daughter of George W. Bush’s former vice-president,Dick Cheney,and an outspoken member of the House committee investigating the January 6 event.

“Harriet is all in for America First,” Trump said in a statement in September,denouncing Cheney as a “RINO” – slang for “Republican in Name Only” – and describing her as “the Democrats number one provider of sound bites.”

Cheney,responding on60 Minutes, said she was well aware that her once safe seat was about to become a litmus test for Trump’s dominance over the party.

“It’s going to be the most important House race in the country in 2022,” she said. “It will be one where people do have the opportunity to say:‘We want to stand for the constitution.’”

Other Trump loyalists have also been endorsed as candidates to become the chief election official,known as the secretary of state. Key contests will take place in Michigan,Arizona and in Georgia,the southern state that helped deliver Joe Biden the presidency – partly because its incumbent secretary,Republican Brad Raffensperger,refused to cave in to Trump’s demands to “find” 11,780 votes to overturn the election result.

The former president and his allies are instead backing US congressman Jody Hice,who voted against certifying Biden’s victory,to run against Raffensberger for the critical post.

“Jody will stop the Fraud and get honesty into our Elections!” Trump declared in 2021.

As for Trump? Even without the megaphone of Twitter and Facebook (which have banned his accounts),he’s nonetheless spent the past 12 months pushing his message through targeted emails,rallies and interviews on Fox News and other friendly outlets.

Trump’s fundraising might

Indeed,a quick tally reveals that since the Capitol attack,almost 1000 campaign emails have been sent from Trump’s office or his Save America fundraising committee.

At the end of July,the last reporting date,Trump’s three main fundraising organisations had declared more than $100 million ($138 million) in revenue.The Washington Post reported in October that the former president was raising more than $US1 million a week.

And while 700 people have now been charged over the January 6 attack,it is not clear if anyone from Trump’s White House and networks will be held accountable.

The appointed House committee has done some painstaking work attempting to build a picture of how the insurrection took place,but Republicans and Democrats alike know that it does not have the benefit of co-operative witnesses,let alone the luxury of time.

Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and political strategist Steve Bannon have already refused to submit to subpoenas,and if Biden loses control of Congress in the midterm elections,which is widely expected,the inquiry will be shelved.

None of this should come as a surprise if you look back at the pattern that emerged in 2020.

While it would take until the November election that year for Trump to label Biden as an illegitimate president,the seeds of doubt had been deliberately sown for months,starting with a Tweet in July in which he claimed that mail-in voting would result in “the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history”.

By Election Day,millions of Americans genuinely believed that the only way their president could lose was if the system was rigged.

More than a year later,68 per cent of Republicans still think the election was “stolen” from Trump,according to a November poll from the Public Religion Research Institute. Eighteen per cent of the survey’s respondents also agreed with the statement:“Because things have gotten so far off track,true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”

It’s enough to make you wonder:were the events of January 6 simply a dress rehearsal for the main event?

Time will tell. But in the battle between democracy and authoritarianism,the re-emergence of Donald Trump and his influence over the Republican Party will be one of the most important political events to watch as 2022 unfolds.

The first test will be next week.

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