[twblalock]

American society was far closer to breaking down in 1968 than it is today. Riots in multiple cities, political assassinations, the polarization over the war in Vietnam, violence in the south over segregation and civil rights, crime waves in most large cities, and urban decay that was so bad people don't believe it when they see the photos today...

[acdha]

There's merit in that comparison but there was nothing like an armed group storming the Capitol with a goal of preventing a fair and honest election. What makes the civil war questions more worrisome to me is how bare-knuckle politics has become so accepted by mainstream Republicans: when Nixon's misconduct came out, his party support eventually declined and had he not resigned, most members of his party would almost certainly have voted for impeachment. Today we're seeing the results of a generation of ideological purges where more significant acts have been met instead with near-unanimous agreement to hold the line and the few dissenters have been evicted from the party.