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Pro-Trump protesters storm into the US Capitol during clashes with police, during a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 US presidential election results by the US Congress, in Washington, on Jan. 6. (Reuters/Yonhap News)

Hwang Joon-bum

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

The threat to America’s democracy, which appeared set to subside after former President Donald Trump left office, remains as strong as ever. “Democracy itself is in peril, here at home and around the world,” President Joe Biden lamented in a Memorial Day speech on Monday. On Tuesday, Stanford University researcher Francis Fukuyama, known as the author of The End of History, warned that “our democracy is under fundamental threat.” in a joint statement signed by 100 or so academics.

The incident that directly triggered this outpouring is a series of laws implemented in Republican-controlled states which purport to restrict voting rights. The most recent was in Texas, a Republican stronghold, where a bill to ban drive-thru voting and 24-hour voting is set to pass the state Senate. The vote was invalidated last week after state legislature Democrats staged a walkout, but Republicans plan to convene an extraordinary session to process the bill in the near future. Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky have already passed more restrictive voting laws since the election in November last year.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, 14 states have passed a total of 22 vote-restricting laws so far, and another 61 bills are currently in motion across 18 states. The provisions of these laws include strengthening identity checks for mail-in votes, shortening voting hours and the period for absentee ballot applications, and restricting the use of drop boxes for ballots. Some even make it illegal to offer refreshments to people standing in line to vote. In a country that has always prided itself on spreading democracy worldwide, attempts are now being made to suppress the ballot, the core pillar of democracy.

While Republicans have stressed that the purpose of these laws is to strengthen voting integrity, critics note that in reality, they appear to be aimed at making voting more difficult for groups that traditionally lean Democrat, including low-income earners and people of color such as Blacks and Hispanics. This is undoubtedly a highly sensitive issue for both parties in the lead-up to next year’s midterm elections and the 2024 presidential race.

The threat to American democracy is strongly tinged by Donald Trump’s influence. Trump continues to perpetuate the “Big Lie” that the election was rigged, and Republicans thwarted an attempt by Democrats to establish a commission to investigate the capitol insurrection staged by his supporters on Jan. 1. In an event connected with far-right conspiracy group QAnon last month, one attendee was met with cheering from the audience when he asked former national security advisor Michael Flynn, “I want to know why what happened in Myanmar can’t happen here.” According to a survey by CBS, 67 percent of Republicans do not believe Biden lawfully won last year’s election. The crisis of democracy is growing atop a foundation of lies, conspiracy theories, blind faith in Trump and distrust of Biden.

While Biden is adamant that democracy must be defended, that is easier said than done. Some have called for a federal law that guarantees equal voting rights for all, but this path is also blocked by opposition from Republicans. Academics such as Fukuyama have advocated clearing the hurdle of Republican opposition to pass laws expanding voting rights, even if that means suspending filibusters, a lawful tool employed to obstruct the passage of laws.

The debate over the crisis of democracy — voting rights — could now develop into a separate controversy over violating democracy — by abolishing filibusters. In Biden’s inauguration speech, held in January on the same podium that had been trampled by rioters, the new president declared, “Democracy has won.” However, American democracy is becoming increasingly fractured internally. The competition between democracy and authoritarianism is also the perspective from which Biden views the world. In the lead-up to Biden’s Democracy Summit this year, how strong will America’s democracy look in front of the world?

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