No civil war tonight

 

The cool thing about elections is that it gives you a preview of how a civil war might turn out. The Founding Fathers weren’t allow to vote for or against King George III, so they were flying blind. The South wasn’t terribly happy with the outcome of the 1860 election, but they accepted the outcome eventually in 1865, after Appomattox. If they accepted the outcome sooner, Atlanta wouldn’t have been burned to the ground.

If the guy you voted for wins the presidential election, you might be happy but you might be concerned that the other side won’t accept the results. To be sure, there are always going to be a few people who won’t accept the results. That’s fine. Nobody has to believe in anything in this country. You can believe that the Earth is flat and the moon is made of cheese if you like. All of those college kids who wore “Bush Is Not My President” shirts during the 00’s at least grasped that they weren’t going to finish school if they personally took up arms. The American political landscape is much like the weather: if you don’t like it, wait a while and it will change to something else.

If the guy you voted for lost, welcome to my world. I’m 41, I’ve voted in every presidential election since 2000 and I have never voted for the winner. Bush, Obama, and Trump all have that in common in that I voted against all three of them. The reason why I’m not dead or in prison is because I’m not the type to resort to violence when I don’t get my way. If you’re my age or older, you’re too old for this civil war shit. If you’re younger than me, you need to understand that wars don’t go the want you expect them to.

I expect that the military will back the winner of the Electoral College. If they don’t back the duly elected commander in chief, they lose their billions in funding and there will be no shiny new toys for them next year. If the military can’t agree on who the winner was, well that’s that and it’s been nice knowing all of you. But if the military is united, it’s suicide to try to overthrow the government this year.

Look, if you really want a preview of a 21^st century civil war, turn off the water, power, and gas to your house. Live off the semi-rancid food in your fridge for a month. Odds are, you won’t die in glorious battle, you’ll just freeze or starve to death.

So, yeah. No civil war tonight. Just the same low level violence that America has always had. If you didn’t want that violence, maybe you should start voting against the drug war.