Is the US history of 230 years of peaceful transition of power credibly at risk?

 

Tad Hargrave

I don't know that "everyone I meet" is thinking like this, but I am seeing a lot of fear of or craving for weapons. For me the punch line is "We won't survive by killing each other," which I think is absolutely true even without a societal collapse.

I guess in a somewhat different way I am echoing the cliché that is popular in some circles: "We don't have a gun problem; we have a heart problem." My concern is that in our hearts revenge and retaliation masquerade as protection and defense, and we humans lack the moral wisdom to make and act on that distinction.

What does this say about our expectations of our fellow citizens? It seems to me to beg a deeply troubling question. Have the hostilities and chasms between us reached a place where we believe those who side loses next week's election will consider that in and of itself to be societal collapse that justifies violent insurrection to overturn the result? Will those whose side wins consider the threat from the "losers" justification for lethal force in a futile effort to preserve stability and security? Except for the Civil War Between the States a century and a half ago, the US has a long and honorable (even enviable by world standards) history of peaceful transitions of power since the adoption of the Constitution in 1787, even in times of considerable political division and controversy. Have we come to a place where believing that noble history is at credible risk?

Not a Prediction but Maybe a Premonition

Blame your favorite whipping post, but the US has clearly been set up to disbelieve the results of next week's election and to distrust the entire electoral process into the future.

Not a completely unrelated corollary is to imagine those who so vociferously objected to the protests of police killings of Black folk will take to the streets if Biden wins, openly carrying their cherished Second Amendment firearms. 

I am posting this here in my Writing Workshop blog on October 30, 2020 to be clear that I considered these things before the election.

I am adding this on December 12, the day after the Supreme Court refused to hear the Texas suit against Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. I am convinced that undermining confidence in the US electoral process also would have been accomplished with a Trump win. 

 What if re-electing Trump was always of secondary importance to undermining confidence in US elections which could be accomplished whether he won or lost?