About That Second Civil War

Tuesday is Election Day, when Americans get to exercise their franchise, and the losing candidate—from either party!—could very well challenge the result and claim victory.

Yes, a Democrat can do it, too. January 6 will forever be remembered as a red-letter date, when hundreds were incarcerated, mostly for trespassing and damaging federal property, and resisting arrest.

But the protests on behalf of Black Lives Matter and Palestinian Terrorists are Terrific — led by progressives who will most certainly vote for the Democratic Party — were not peaceful. They also resulted in the destruction of public property and scuffling with police, along with the intimidation of Jews. Very few spent even one night in jail.

Republicans wearing MAGA hats are no more or less dangerous to our democracy. What has been happening on our college campuses—led by DEI administrators and hatefully mischievous professors, with spillovers into media, publishing, museums, nonprofits, K-12 classrooms, and the human resources departments of major corporations—is a complete rejection of the First Amendment: the amendment that is the bellwether of our democracy.

Harris supporters, all. Both sides are debasing our democracy.

The United States is the world’s oldest democracy—from the get-go. We never had a monarchy that required convincing to step aside, surrender authority, and make way for representative government. Our Founding Fathers, initially, didn’t know what to call the person George Washington would soon become. There already was a King George, stewing over the loss of his Colonies, his mighty Red Coats defeated by a ragtag rabble that one day would root for the Red Sox.

We would end up calling Washington, President, and he voluntarily stepped down after serving two terms. The 22nd Amendment codified that transfer of power. Ever since, there have been a few close presidential elections by the popular vote and the Electoral College count, resulting in some uncertainty. The one in 2000 was decided by the Supreme Court; the one in 2020 was decided by revulsion to the events on January 6. For the first time, there was the spectacle of the highest office in the land possibly being decided by force.

This cannot happen again.

We have been transferring this elective office peacefully longer than any other democratic nation. Longevity comes with responsibility. Coup d’etat is not in our DNA. So many of our institutions are already failing—our government, the clergy, press, law enforcement. Handing off the keys to the White House must be accomplished with grace, dignity, and electoral certainty.

Coup d’etat is not in our DNA. So many of our institutions are already failing—our government, the clergy, press, law enforcement. Handing off the keys to the White House must be accomplished with grace, dignity, and electoral certainty.

It is true that Donald Trump was not, to say the least, magnanimous in defeat in 2020. Indeed, he and many of his supporters never accepted the results.

It is not true, however, as so many continue to impugn, that he incited a riot on the Capitol. As usual, he was reckless with his presence at the Ellipse. And irresponsible in some of what he said. But he urged the gathered crowd to march over to the Capitol, “peacefully and patriotically,” and “make your voices heard.”

Those are not the marching orders for a riot.

Yes, his reluctance to intervene while the mayhem was happening, and his indifference to it, were grossly negligent.

Meanwhile, Democrats failed to derail Trump’s march back to the White House—with numerous legal challenges to keep him off the ballot or cripple his campaign by locking him up. The latest efforts to defeat him, led by the Democratic standard bearer, Kamala Harris, are to call him a fascist and the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler.

Trump is many unattractive things—impulsive, insulting, philandering, bullying, self-flattering, bloviating, un-self-aware, and, as an overall human being, more imperfect than most—but he’s not Hitler, and I say that as someone whose life was forever altered by Hitler.

The election remains too close to call and no doubt there will be legal and electoral challenges that could go on for weeks. The prevalent use of absentee, mail-in ballots, questions about who should receive them and how they are collected, and concerns about voter identity and verification, will once again invite mistrust.

I long for the old days: the ubiquity of the ballot box and voting machines.

Recounts and audits will be ordered. Lawsuits will be filed. Like in 2020, the courts, especially the Supreme Court, will not wish to be called upon to anoint the next president. When defects in the ballots or count mechanism are discovered, judges will doubtlessly dismiss the cases as they did in 2020, and rule that there is “no evidence of widespread fraud.” That, however, will only pique the interest of those who will wonder: “But there is evidence of some fraud?”

Prepare yourselves for protests in the streets. They seem to be the rage these days. For weeks pundits have held their tongues rather than say what is on the minds of many: Will this election set the stage for a civil war?

Since the Civil War, at no other time has our nation been this divided, or contemptuous of those who hold differing views. Slavery was the tripwire in 1860; sadly, race is still a factor in today’s upheavals, along with sex, gender, immigration, crime, antisemitism and the environment.

Name-calling has risen to a contagion, a national ethic. President Biden inveighs MAGA Republicans as “garbage”; a comedian at a Trump rally has a similar observation about Puerto Rico. Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” is being recalled, and Trump’s stump speech is replete with “rapists, murderers, criminals, insane asylums and enemies from within.”

It still looks as if half the country consists of college-educated coastal elites with progressive leanings and numerous complaints about their country, and the other half red-state, rustbelt, blue-collar, God-fearing Americans who listen to country music, possibly as an expression of their love for country.

I feel confident we will survive the turmoil. I only ask that if post-election conflicts are inevitable, this time, can we all agree to at least have a civil, Civil War?

By next week, America’s political landscape will be completely different. I feel confident we will survive the turmoil. I only ask that if post-election conflicts are inevitable, this time, can we all agree to at least have a civil, Civil War?

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is the legal analyst for CBS News Radio. His most recent book is titled “Saving Free Speech … From Itself,” and his forthcoming book is titled, “Beyond Proportionality: Is Israel Fighting a Just War in Gaza?”