Dear Readers,
I started “Slender Threads” on Substack partly because I fear that the U.S. is careening towards a new civil war. I think it is highly likely that one political party or the other will not accept the results of the 2024 presidential election, charging either massive voter fraud or voter suppression if they lose, no matter what the facts are, but especially if the electoral college winner is not the popular vote winner. This is likely to lead to another attempted insurrection in January 2025, a revolt even more violent and bitter than the one in 2021, the loss of democracy, the establishment of autocracy or at least authoritarianism and a surveillance society to restore order.
The country desperately needs to make structural changes in its election system, to insure that the popular vote winner is the electoral college winner, but I see little chance that will happen by 2024.
I’ve created a 16-post mini-course that can be perused in an hour or two.
How the American Civil War Lives On in Contemporary Politics and Life. The potential for a new civil war. Grappling with family histories as old sins cast long shadows.
I would be most interested in what you think. Is civil war inevitable? Certainly, looking back on American history from the adoption of the Constitution in 1789 to the firing on Fort Sumter in April, 1861, one can say that the first civil war was inevitable because of the inherent contradiction in the country’s founding — a nation founded on freedom and equality that enslaved nearly 18 percent of its population.
Do you agree that the prospects of a new civil war are strong? I would be grateful if you can assure me that no, it’s not inevitable. But what can we do to help democracy function, restore trust in each other and in Abraham Lincoln’s phrase, “to bind up the nation’s wounds”?
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Best,
Jim Buie
