It will be a dark day on Thursday for those marking what happened exactly one year ago: January 6, 2021.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris plan to speak at the United States Capitol in the morning. Members of the United States House and Senate are invited to gather on the steps at dusk for a prayer vigil.

But as we remember, it’s critical that we – if there is more of a collective in America – understand that we are living through the most pivotal time in American political history since the Civil War era.

Journalist Bill Moyers sets out this harsh truth at the start of “Preserving Democracy: Pursuing a More Perfect Union,” which airs Thursday at 9 pm on PBS.

“If we don’t understand that, and if everyone, Republican or Democrat, Independent or whatever, (doesn’t realize) what the stakes are, the United States we all imagine and the one we love, because we think that this promises equality, will be over, ”Moyers said.

The country of our imagination was not meant to be threatened by an insurgency. But that’s what happened on January 6 with the storming of the U.S. Capitol, a violent attack sparked by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was over him. stolen.

Five people have died, more than 100 police officers have been injured and the peaceful process of transfer of power, particularly the certification of Biden’s victory in a joint session of Congress, has been put on hold for hours.

Following:‘This is insane.’ Lawmakers relive January 6 horror alongside new trauma of efforts to rewrite history

Following:Biden, Trump, Pelosi and prayers: what to expect in January 6 commemorations

There will be wide coverage of the celebrations as news sites flood their areas with reporters, commentators and politicians who reflect on what happened. The trauma of the riot, both physical and psychological, will be in the foreground.

But “Preserving democracy” takes a different direction. He tries to answer the questions that must be asked to fulfill the mission of his title. Why do democracies fail? How far back do the roots of this particular revolt go?

And, most importantly, what must we do to consolidate and save a system of government that can be weakened and taken over by autocrats and extremists with the same freedoms that are its strength?

The two-hour documentary provides context for the events of January 6 through interviews with academics, authors, activists and former and current government officials, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Georgetown University professor Marcia Chatelain and Washington Post reporter Robert Costa, who co-authored the bestselling “Peril,” on Trump’s ultimate efforts to hold on to power.

They talk about the big picture of democracy across the world and the history of the pursuit of its ideals here at home, from the American Revolution to the Civil Rights Movement and more – a process that sparked progress and triggered negative reactions since the formation of our nation.

At the start of the PBS special, historian David Bell of Princeton University raises the awkward reality that democracies are often messy and volatile and slowly progressing toward their goals. In the 18th century, he notes, the very word “democracy” meant chaos to most people, a sort of crowd rule that “wasn’t something people wanted.”

Democracies can die in a military coup, but in recent times many have slowly vanished at the polls. Demagogues can be elected with impossible promises and an unspoken agenda to cut corners and accumulate power for themselves.

Nations like Turkey and India are cited here as current examples of surface democracies that are governed more as authoritarian countries. The film also notes that the United States first joined the list of declining democracies in a multinational think tank in November 2021.

As Bell explains, there is an inherent danger in the democratic system. By allowing freedom of expression and the freedom to form a political movement, authoritarians and extremists could potentially manipulate these freedoms. Democracy “allows these movements to find supporters. It allows them to lie, to spread disinformation. It is always a very difficult line on which democratic regimes commit.

The secular stability of American democracy is generally taken for granted, but it is the exception, not the rule. The country has survived despite fault lines as old as its foundation and as fresh as today’s distorted arguments on critical race theory.

“Preserving Democracy” frankly and honestly examines how the democratic ideals conceived nearly 250 years ago by the Founding Fathers were meant to be applied only to white males who owned property. As New York writer Jelani Cobb puts it, this fact has been obscured by our national mythology. And when the wrongs were righted, the expansion of rights inevitably caused a backlash. The end of slavery caused the rise of the Jim Crow South. Black men and women continued to be terrorized and murdered by white supremacists and prevented from exercising their constitutional rights.

As the documentary unequivocally shows, even the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, hailed by some as the start of a post-racial society, failed to break the cycle of progress followed by backlash. The media tended to avoid the problem of racism directed at Obama when possible, but as Costa put it, “It is difficult to find another explanation for the level of hatred and the level of outrage against the first president. noir”.

Following:January 6 exposed our national cracks. A year later, the memories of the day still divide us

Following:Who invaded the United States Capitol on January 6? Criminal cases shed light on offenses

The film also covers the economic pressures of the new millennium that have reduced opportunities for blue collar workers and helped spur Donald Trump’s rise. But from the moment he declared his presidential candidacy with remarks that included a reference to Mexico sending its “rapists” to the United States, Trump’s rhetoric has shaped our current situation.

“He understood why people were so angry and he encouraged their anger. He helped them identify scapegoats, ”said Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council specialist on Russian and European affairs who testified at House hearings in 2019 before Trump’s first impeachment.

With a measured and painstakingly researched approach, the documentary traces how the Trump presidency stirred up political fever through social media and denied any facts that did not fit its narrative. By the time of the 2020 election, allegations of massive voter fraud seemed inevitable in an administration that dismissed everything it didn’t like as fake news.

But what matters most about “Preserving Democracy” is the enormous challenge of what follows, a subject that this otherwise lucid narrative tackles with a hope that seems too rosy for the dangers we face.

“If it was possible to have a failed coup on January 6, it is also possible to have a successful coup. It sounds very simple, but it’s a huge change, ”says Masha Gessen, author of“ Surviving Autocracy ”.

The next mid-terms in 2022 and the presidential election of 2024 look like melting pots that are fast approaching. In this stormy environment, the film’s suggestions for fostering more consensus, putting the right to vote at the forefront, and increasing civic education in schools seem to be the equivalent of raising a hand to speak at a shout match. .

Can we commit ourselves enough to protect democracy from those who see it as expendable? May be.

“You have to love the idea of ​​democracy to make it work,” Moyers said in “Preserving Democracy”. Taking a civics class or watching a PBS special, for that matter, isn’t a permanent fix to what’s broken. But it could be a first step.

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at [email protected]

“Preserving democracy: pursuing a more perfect union”

9 p.m. Thursday

PBS