The Violence In Israel Is What An American Civil War Will Look Like
Recent polling shows around half of Americans believe a civil war is imminent in the next few years.
by Bob Cesca
WASHINGTON, DC – With the horrifying violence in Israel and Gaza filling our social media feeds, we need to have a serious conversation in this country about our blindingly insane flirtation with sectarian violence and civil war in the United States.
According to a study by the University of Chicago, an estimated 12 million American adults support the use of violence to reinstall Donald Trump in the White House. Sure, crazy cultists and gun-fetishists who would do anything for their ungainly Mar-a-lago messiah, right? Hang on, it’s not just them.
The survey found that almost 14% – a minority of Americans, but still a significant number – believe the use of force is justified to “achieve political goals that I support”. More specifically, 12.4% believe it’s justified to restore the federal right to abortion, 8.4% believe it’s justified to ensure members of Congress and other government officials do the right thing, 6.3% think it’s justified to preserve the rights of white Americans, and 6.1% believe it’s justified to prevent the prosecution of Trump.
Beyond this shocking level of support for political violence across the ideological spectrum, a majority of Americans in poll after poll believe there will absolutely be another civil war in the United States – and soon. Recent polling shows around half of Americans believe a civil war is imminent in the next few years.
Elsewhere, both Donald Trump and Fox News shrieking eel Greg Gutfeld are openly encouraging political violence.
This foolishness can be attributed to two things: 1) too many of us fail to realize that democracy is a battle of words and votes, not violence and death, and 2) too many of us have no clue what an actual civil war would look like here.
To the first point, perhaps it’s our gun culture – our shoot first, stand-your-ground, toxic masculinity attitude here, most often exacerbated by the criminal leader of the Republican Party, that’s generating this infatuation with another civil war. Or perhaps it’s that our most violent citizens simply can’t produce the words or facts required to make a case for their bullshit. So in lieu of enough words and votes, fire away.
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According to author Jeff Sharlet in his book The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, megachurches are indoctrinating their congregations into believing that not only is the civil war coming, but they should all be prepared to fight, targeting anyone they brand as woke. To these congregants, it’s not cosplay – they really believe a civil war is inevitable. It’s become woven into their religious faith, making it extremely difficult to unwind. When Hillary Clinton said some of these people need to be deprogrammed as though they were members of a cult, she wasn’t wrong.
However, wanting a civil war and actually understanding what it means in execution are two very different things. And one of the things that keeps me awake at night is our apparent inability to grasp the ramifications of domestic warfare – sectarian violence in our own cities and suburbs.
I say this because the anticipation of political warfare remains steady despite what we’re witnessing in Israel, Gaza, and Ukraine. For the last few decades, Americans have been accustomed to watching scenes of war in foreign-looking areas: deserts, mountains, and previously war-torn parts of the world. But now, each of the current theaters could easily be mistaken for parts of the United States. Ukraine, in particular, looks indistinguishable from myriad American towns.
My sincere hope was that seeing mass destruction in places that look like America would disabuse some if not most of us from this casual relationship with civil war. Unfortunately, it hasn’t. But if we fail to internalize what it’ll look like when bombs or missile strikes level American hospitals or when extremist factions seize American hostages at outdoor rock concerts, we’re doomed to the same fate as Tel Aviv, Gaza City, and Mariupol.
An American civil war won’t be like last time – two armies of woolen Victorian white men marching into remote farm fields and slaughtering each other by the hundreds of thousands. A new civil war will be far, far worse. It’ll be strikes against civilian targets and civilian gatherings, slaughtering innocent Americans by the millions. And given what we know about the history of guerilla warfare and sectarian violence, it will not end. Do we seriously believe that radicalized people who’ve folded their religious beliefs into their political beliefs will sit down and negotiate? Never.
No one will escape the devastating impact of a civil war. In addition to the apocalyptic death toll, the economy, governments, jobs, food supplies, and the well-being of our children will all be in jeopardy. American life as we know it will come to an end.
Civil War historian Shelby Foote once said the worst fights he’d ever witnessed were between brothers. Now, give those brothers AR15s and see what happens. Meantime, if you or anyone you know is monkeying around with the idea of going to war for politics, show them Gaza. Show them Israel. Show them Ukraine. Ask them if this is what they want, and what’s in it for them besides being another statistic in the daily death toll. We have to make an attempt, whatever that may be, to stop this march before it worsens. Cooler heads have to prevail, or else.
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Bob Cesca paints an apocalyptic picture of what a US Civil war would look like. We have seen that lone wolf actors can inflict tremendous suffering, killing, and destruction. However, it is difficult to imagine that the 12% who say violence is acceptable if you don’t get what you want, could organize a coordinated civil war against the government and 88% of Americans that won’t use violence, except for self defense.
The most important efforts that can be made to reduce and eventually eliminate the threat of Trumpism and anti government violence are: 1) Purge the Police and Military of all racist, radical, anti government insurgents, and, 2) Stop the passive acceptance of Trumpism and Trumpers. The 88% of Americans who demand democracy can no longer ignore or tolerate the extremist idiocy of Trump. If you are among the 88% of democracy loving Americans who have friends or family that still believe the election was stolen and want Trumpy for life, then it is time to excise this cancer from your lives and our society. Shun the irrational cultists and racist extremists who are family members and one time friends. Don’t tolerate them in any daily activities. Ostracize them from all meaningful relationships and expose any election participation from known insurrectionists. Bury their hate and ignorance with truth and facts. Start today and we will avoid an uncivil war.
All of that is thoroughly horrifying. That said, I really think that you've done shrieking eels a disservice by lumping them in with Greg Gutfeld.