[Magdalen] AP report: Trump is nominee.

[M J _Mike_ Logsdon]

>>>I suppose the elections in the decades before the USA Civil War were  as
contentious, since the entire social/economic/cultural system of half  of
Americans was at stake.  In fact the differences were so great at that  time
that it resulted in war.  I hope these riots in city after city in the  USA 
don't signal such a cataclysm.
It's all unsettling and not a little scary.<<<

I'm of the opinion the U.S. can't really manage a true "civil war" again (any more than it "managed" it the first and only time).  But, yes, he's tapped into something that's normally avoided for the most part, regardless of strife:  the inherent fact that the Civil War (in a much more insidious and damaging way than the Korean War) is not over.  For generations we've managed, as a people, to let fringe be fringe, and the rest of us continue on governing by for and of.

It also also illustrates, as has been mentioned in so many other contexts, how inherently violent we are as a nation, and since we no longer have tangible "enemies", we let it out the only way we know, by "hurting the ones we love", -- ourselves.  Quite often the Trump rally violence is white on white, even.

The silver lining to hold onto with every fiber of our being is that 1968 didn't destroy the Democratic party for "generations to come".  Only for a little bit, if that.  Same thing with cataclysmic events in the GOP.  The only difference this time is Trump.  Romney was unthinkable, but he at least had a measure of self-imposed decorum.  If Trump gets the White House, he'll, in the end, be decorous, but only because those around him -- even his own slime -- will make sure of it.

When I hear and indulge in my own worry about both conventions in July, I really think people should finetune their focus of fear a bit, on occasion.  Specifically, think about Bush Jr's second inauguration, and how the motorcade turned tail and sped off.  That, my friends, could easily (hopefully not) prove this January to have been a mere hiccup in social balance.