The year following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was a disastrous one for American democracy. Republicans spent months codifying the riots aims into dozens of new state laws restricting voting rights and exerting new partisan powers over elections, playing up old conspiracy theories and fomenting new ones, and potentially setting the stage for even more drastic attempts to undermine elections and democracy.

The year ahead may be even worse. And if Senate Democrats dont take momentous action and soon a crisis may become a calamity.

Emboldened by the ease with which theyve overhauled election laws in the states and their ability to block federal reform legislation in Washington, Republicans are planning to escalate nearly every aspect of their anti-democratic assault in 2022.

Republican state lawmakers have already pre-filed or carried over more than 100 legislative proposals to further restrict voting rights and erode democracy. The GOP has set its sights on major election victories in Novembers midterms, with the aim of retaking Congress, winning back governors mansions in key swing states, and replacing secretaries of state who thwarted efforts to overturn the 2020 election with people who believe the election was stolen from Donald Trump. And its relentless lies and conspiracy theories have inspired a rash of violent threats against local lawmakers and election officials.

The combination seems certain to place the countrys democracy under the sort of stress it hasnt faced in generations: Experts like David Becker, the CEO of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, worry that the tinderbox Republicans have built will explode either into renewed efforts to overturn elections, violent insurrections in the states, or perhaps both.

The question is whether Democrats and Senate Democrats, in particular will move to counter the GOP onslaught in ways they did not in 2021, when two major federal election reform bills remained on the back burner for months despite claims from party leaders and President Joe Biden that they were a top priority. If the Senate doesnt change its filibuster rules and pass the stalled legislation soon, the United States current backslide toward authoritarianism may only speed up.

I am as concerned as I ever have been, Becker said during a media briefing Tuesday. And every day that goes by I only become more concerned that we are heading toward something that our democracy has never had to deal with before.