Presidential election reveals how divided we are as a nation. But ‘Civil War II’? Not exactly
America has always been “blessed” with predictions of doom and despair before and after every presidential election, but in recent years we have gone Category Five with forecasts of a Civil War II.
Since history is guilty of repeating itself, would America go to war with itself again?
We may not know the results to the presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris until later in the week, but we do know at least half of the reaction to whoever is declared the winner will not be quiet.
There will be allegations of Russian interference. There will be charges of “fixed” ballot boxes. There will chatter that the whole thing is a rigged WWE match. If it makes you feel any better, Trump v. Harris is hardly the first time America has endured a bitter, nasty presidential election.
“Every one of these elections has sucked,” said Dallas resident and successful history podcaster Lindsay Graham. He produced a podcast series titled, “American Elections: Wicked Game” that details all previous presidential elections.
In light of yet another volatile presidential election cycle, compounded by the images of those who charged the United States Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021, discussions of what it would take to start another Civil War have begun.
On the surface, the concept sounds ridiculous. But it did happen once before in this country, as well as in other nations around the world.
“(Texas) has periodically argued that ‘We’re better off,’” historian and best-selling author Erik Larson said, referencing the occasional threat from Texans that it should be its own country again. The Republic of Texas existed 1836 to 1846.
“People do what they do, and say what they say,” Larson said. “One thing I have learned, though, in the course of working on this, and past books, is when people start talking crazy, take them seriously. Take them seriously.”
Larson, who has written best-selling books “Devil in the White City,” “Isaac’s Storm,” “In the Garden of Beasts,” among others, was holed up in his home in 2021 when he was listening to political chatter about this topic.
“People were muttering about modern day secession. Modern day Civil War,” Larson said in an interview earlier this year. “I started thinking, ‘How did the Civil War get started?’ I know the high school timeline, but what were the details?”
The question led Larson to violate his own vow of never writing about the Civil War. His latest book, “Demon of Unrest,” which was released earlier this year, details the specifics of what led South Carolina to galvanize the Southern states to secede from the United States. A good portion of those details include the presidential election of Abraham Lincoln, and the root cause of the Civil War: slavery.
Since Larson has detailed how the Civil War began, would another ever happen here in America?
“As to the issue of another Civil War, it certainly could not have the same kind of catastrophe as there was in 1861. That was all about slavery, and there were clear boundaries. North versus South, and then there were territories,” he said. “What we have today is a situation where everybody is complaining from every direction. There are factions who support one thing, and another faction supports another.”
The concern is not a conventional Civil War II.
“The concern that (the FBI and Homeland Security) have is what they refer to as ‘accelerationists’,” Larson said.
According to the Foreign Policy Institute, “accelerationism” is “the most inherently violent and dangerous ideology circulating in the global white supremacist extremist movement.”
“The fear is those who might be inclined to do one-off terrorist acts of violence or destruction with the idea of destabilizing society to bring on whatever utopian disaster they envision as the next thing to come down the pike,” he said. “I hate to speculate but one-off violence seems like a very likely prospect by some of those factions.
“I am the guy who was never going to write about the Civil War, and we won’t have another one in the classic sense.”
Larson defines our period as “contentious,” fueled by social media and our inability not to consume it. Despite all of the disagreements that exist, he does not anticipate another Civil War.
After the election results are announced, however, we may as well brace for a few forecasts of another one.
