The 2020 U.S. presidential election was an important and influential election in the United States, and one that showed clear signs of democratic erosion in this country. While elections in the United States are typically looked at as democratic processes that should be a playbook for other countries’ elections, this one in particular challenged the idea that American elections are truly democratic and fair. The election saw unprecedented levels of misinformation, saw copious amounts of efforts to overturn the results, and saw the sitting president actively try to undermine the democratic process. I posit that the events surrounding the 2020 U.S. presidential election, specifically the refusal of the sitting president to certify the election’s results and the attack on the Capitol on January 6^th, contributed to heavy democratic erosion in the United States at levels rarely before seen in the country’s great history.

One of the most impactful aspects of the 2020 election was that the sitting president, Donald Trump, refused to accept that he had lost the election. He then proceeded to rally his base behind him in order to try and gain support for his baseless claims. He consistently claimed that the election was “stolen” by the Democratic party, almost always without any proof or evidence of true election fraud or interference. Even after courts and experts collectively disproved Trump’s claims, he continued to fire up his base and persist that the presidency was stolen from him.

Trump used a hallmark of democratic erosion in order to advance his arguments. He continuously eroded trust in the democratic process in order to get his way, and he actively attempted to discredit political institutions and leaders in order to overturn the election. This clear erosion of trust was felt by millions of his supporters. Trump used political pressure, such as firing those who did not agree with him, in order to convince politicians to agree with him. While the election was not successfully overturned, it was clear that the public’s trust in the electoral process was eroded. This erosion of trust in the system is a major way in which leaders erode democracies in order to gain or maintain political power.

Trump also refused to certify the results of the election, and to this day still claims that the election was stolen from him. The outgoing president not certifying the results of the election is a major break of political norms in democracies. Norms are a major factor in holding a democracy and its processes together. When the leader of an entire country break important norms, it is a clear attempt at eroding democracy in order to advance the leader’s goals. Trump even had mass media backing up his claims that the election was stolen. Manipulation of the media is just an added factor in democratic erosion.

Beyond just public erosion of confidence in the democratic process, Trump and his team of lawyers also decided to take their case to the courts. His legal team filed dozens and dozens of lawsuits in multiple different states in order to challenge if the vote counts in certain swing states were truly valid. While these lawsuits were almost all dismissed for a lack of evidence, they were a clear attempt at Trump using the legal system and the courts in order to advance his cause. Autocrats or potential autocrats who try to erode democracy often use the legal system and connections within the courts in order to have cases decided in their favor, and seeing this in the United States from the sitting president was a shock to many people.

Lastly, the use of violence and threats in this election was heightened to a point almost never seen before in American history. There was constant pressure on election officials, especially in swing states, to aid Trump in overturning the election. Election officials all throughout the country faced heavy backlash and pressure to aid Trump, even from Trump’s supporters. An election official in Arizona, Bill Gates, even documented how he suffered from PTSD after being abused after the election of 2020. These extreme methods to pressure and sway elected officials is a common theme in democratic erosion. If the officials in charge of upholding democracy are pressured to undermine it, the democracy is doomed.

The icing on the cake of democratic erosion is actual political violence, which the United States experienced on January 6, 2021, when many Trump supporters attacked the Capitol in Washington D.C., and attempted to attack those inside the building. The lack of a peaceful transition of power led to this violence that put our elected officials in physical danger. This attack was not just a physical attack on democracy, but also an attack on the democratic institution itself.

This outward act of violence from supporters of Trump was the highlight of showing how democracy was being eroded. Using violence to silence or punish political opponents is one of the most effective ways to erode democracy. While Trump claims that he did not tell his supporters to attack the Capitol, he did not exactly deter them, and he has constantly defended many of the people that were in or around the area at the time. This insurrection was a clear effect of democratic erosion in the United States, and the buildup and follow-up of the election led to this tragedy, and in turn led to democracy in the United States being eroded.

To conclude, the events surrounding the U.S. presidential election of 2020 directly contributed to democratic erosion in the United States. The president’s refusal to certify the election, the usage of the public and the courts to pressure officials and overturn the election, and the insurrection and use of political violence on January 6^th were all direct contributors to eroding democracy in the United States. While the attempts by Trump were unsuccessful, he did manage to erode confidence in the United States democracy and led his supporters to believe that the entire system really was corrupt. Through the erosion of political norms and the use of damaging rhetoric to advance his claims, Trump and his team led to even more democratic erosion in a country that has already seen its democracy begin to erode in the recent past.