No doubt about it, but the US presidential election of 2020 is the most contentious election since the presidential election of 1860 immediately before the War of Secession, often mistakenly call the American Civil War.
At stake is the soul of a country, nay, an empire, that is on the downhill slide. A Trump win will slow the process, but not prevent its ultimate conclusion, and a Biden win will accelerate the demise. The America that once was is gone, and the America that is now will not be around for much longer.
Many pundits are predicting a civil war regardless of which candidate wins. There is plenty of evidence to support such a view. Political polarization is at an all time high. Conservatives and other rightists are being censored by most mass communication mediums and social media. The right wing is very angry about the situation, and rightfully so. In their view, the actions of those organizations is tantamount to abolishing free speech. The left wing, on the other hand, recognizes the power of preventing competing messaging which would interfere with its own. Other sources of friction are the complicity of elected officials in aiding and abetting riotous behavior in Democrat-controlled cities, especially some of the larger population centers on the West Coast. People in the rest of the country watch such shenanigans and are afraid that it could happen in their city. People who don't live in large cities wonder if it could spill over and affect them. Political animus augmented with belligerent speech from leading politicians where lines in the sand are drawn, and vague consequences threatened, are making the average citizen, who is not immersed in politics on a daily basis, afraid. Very afraid.
In response to these shenanigans, people are responding. They are stocking up on essential items, in case the supply chain is disrupted. As an aside, I would think that the people in large cities need to be more concerned about this happening that those who live in less dense areas. Gun stores are selling out. Many of the people buying guns now have never owned a firearm before. A causal perusal of online ammunition inventory reveals that most of what is left for sale are oddball collector cartridges, such as 7.62x38mm Nagant and 22 Hornet, or niche cartridges, such as 45 GAP and 30 Carbine. Don't misunderstand me - there is nothing wrong with any of those chamberings, it's just that there are not that many firearms around that can use them. Interestingly, there seems to be plenty of 7.62x39mm ammunition (for the scary AK-47), but said ammo costs three to four times more than it did two months ago. If you are looking for 9x19mm pistol ammunition or 223 Remington (5.56x45 NATO) for your AR15, forget it. If you do find it, you will probably pay through the nose.
How did we get to this point? Well, the America of today is not the same country as the America of yesteryear, when people could agree to disagree. For one thing, our educational system has preached the equality myth for several generations. When I use the term "equality myth", I am referring to the idea that equal outcomes are possible with the right social structure. This is a distinctly Marxist concept, and regardless of how many times it has been tried in the past and will be tried in the future, it will always prove to be elusive. However, there are quite large percentages of people in the US that have embraced the equality myth, and they think that if we just do it one more time, but do it correctly, it will work. I suppose these people believe in fairy tales, too.
Another reason that has contributed to the situation involves the concept of nation. At one time, in the 18th century, and maybe the early 19th century, the United States could be considered a nation. Many people think that nations and countries are the same thing, and jingoistic propaganda has not disabused them of that notion. A nation and a country are not the same thing. A nation is a collection of people with common beliefs, common heritage, common language, and common religion. A country is a chunk of land with political borders. Thus the United States is no longer a nation, but a country which is a collection of nations. In the Southwest, you have the nation of Aztlan. In South Boston, there is the nation of New Ireland. In Southeast Florida, there is a nation Florida-Caribe. In Minneapolis, there is the infamous Northern Somali nation. And in most major metropolitan downtown areas, there are various African nations. With no well-thought-out immigration policy, the constituents of these nations have immigrated to America, and when they did, they brought their own common beliefs, common heritages, common languages, and common religions. They did not abandon those things and become Americans. Citizens, yes, but not Americans. And surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, if you have been paying attention, they did not assimilate. They never had any intention of assimilating. To believe any different would mean would mean that the dirt is magic, and that as soon as they landed on America's shores, the immigrants would jettison their cultural baggage and become instant Americans. It doesn't happen that way, as the proliferation of mosques across the country will attest.
So, we have political enmity, a country fractured along ethno-national lines, and lots and lots of weapons. Will we have a civil war? I don't know, but I know that I hope and pray we don't. I do think, at the very least, we will have some sort of localized rioting. I think that some West Coast states will threaten to secede, and I think if they do, we should let them. Those states may become a magnet for malcontents that we can afford to lose. What I think is very likely is that the political party landscape will change. As the boomers in the Democrat party die off, I think that it will attract non-white immigrants and their descendants, avowed Marxists and other left wing ideologues, the lazy, and criminals. What is now the Republican party will be largely made up of whites, mostly conservative, and those non-whites that respond less to feel-good propaganda and more to classical liberalism. Unfortunately, unless both parties can get rid of their entrenched political classes, the constituents of each party will be sorely disappointed. The current system, under which a person can spend an entire adult lifetime in elected office, is untenable. It is a system in which the voters become a commodity to be traded in favor of power and influence. This is why I say that regardless of which presidential candidate is elected, America, as we know it, will cease to exist in the not-so-distant future.
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