When the MAGA mob stormed the Capitol, were we watching the first battle of second American Civil War? Or were we watching an inevitable slide into tyranny?
In 1861, the second worst President in American history, James Buchanan, sent America into Civil War. But that war had a clear definition and boundaries, which meant the war could be fought and won and had an ending.
In Yugoslavia the war is contained, for now. In Iraq or Yemen or Syria or Lybia the war is either intermittent or permanent, but essentially never ending. One of the problem is borders.
In America, the borders of slave states formed the rebel nation. Slaves were in these states. Slaves were not in the other states. (There were border states, but the rebel government had defined area.) So war could be fought and won or lost. We utterly fucked up the peace, but the war itself and the rebel government ended.
You could say the war ended in Yugoslavia, but the multi-ethnic society held together by Marshall Tito is gone and won't return. Hundreds of thousands were killed. Hundreds of thousands were displaced. Normal life has returned, but in ethnic enclaves with real borders.
America is a complicated mess. There are red states and blue states, but a half dozen states are more or less evenly split. What side are they on? And what about Austin, Texas, a hip enclave in amid millions of red state rednecks? Or Madison, Wisconsin? Or Denver and Boulder in Colorado?
My own state of Pennsylvania can still be described as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in the middle. I live in the city of Lancaster, a small, largely Democratic city in the middle of a county that is 80% Republican. Is Pennsylvania red or blue? It has a split congressional delegation--nine congress members from each party, one senator from each party.
If America falls apart, the split can't happen along defined physical borders. We are mixed thoroughly. We have to find a way to live with each other or face an ugly future.
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