The most chilling aspect of the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the U.S. Capitol is that, almost two years later, the peril remains.

As the House Committee investigating the horrific assault has dramatized, the attack may be a prelude to election deniers gaining a foothold to power in the midterm elections.

Former President Donald Trump, far from being chastened by probes debunking his allegation that fraud knocked him from his perch in the White House, has stoked the flames that should have been extinguished long ago.

What makes this conspiracy theory even more heinous is that Trump spread the allegations knowing they were false, according to a federal judge who ruled that the former president challenged the election results with phony claims of rigging.

“The emails (between Trump and his lawyer, John Eastman) show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public,” U.S. District Judge David Carter of Central California stated in his recent ruling.

All elections are crucial, but these midterms may be the most consequential in decades. With so many election deniers vying for office, the Constitution itself is on the ballot. One candidate — Kari Lake, who is running for governor of Arizona — has been brazen enough to say she will accept the election results, but only if she wins.

Such denialism could set the stage for a constitutional crisis in 2024.

“Let me assure every one of you this,” U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney said, closing a Jan. 6 committee hearing in July, “our Committee understands the gravity of this moment, the consequences for our nation.”

Lake embodies the deceit perpetrated on voters, but she is not alone. More than 300 candidates nationally are election deniers, all Republicans. Many are running for positions, including attorney general and secretary of state, that exercise a significant impact on future elections, with the potential of weakening our tenuous grip on democracy.

Texas is a particularly egregious offender, boasting an abundance of election deniers and doubters running for state office and Congress. During the primary and general elections, many candidates this year have either denied the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s victory or raised doubts about it. Some have tried to circumvent the issue, saying they don’t have concerns but understand why many people do.

Of course, the greatest election denier is indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the election.

“A lot of voters, as well as myself, believe something went wrong in this election,” Paxton tweeted the morning of the siege.

Paxton was right. Something did go wrong, but it came when Trump started duping his supporters with the lie that he lost the election due to fraud.

Focusing on the Big Lie during rallies for Republican candidates, Trump has continued to fuel the bitterness that provoked the Jan. 6 insurrection. The situation is so dire that election administrators are warning voters of the potential for violence. Three Gillespie County election officials resigned after receiving a hailstorm of threats from deniers.

“(The 2020 election) was a fake and dirty and rigged election,” Trump said during a recent rally for Jim Marchant, who is running for secretary of state in Nevada.

At a recent rally in Robstown, Trump said of Patrick, “I wish I had him as attorney general.”

Our democracy almost crumbled Jan. 6, and it such an attack could happen again if deniers gain a foothold in states. The greatest bulwark against treachery is a populace that believes, as firmly as the Founding Fathers did, in the Constitution. We need that devotion to democracy more than ever.

Jan. 6 — and the scurrilous lie that led to it — told us an ugly truth about America. Society and civility are flimsy veneers, barely able to ward off the evil that lies beyond the pretense. The siege is part of our past, but it may also be part of our future if voters do not consider the danger the deniers pose to our most precious right — the vote.

— San Antonio Express-News