FBXL Social

A lot of well-read individuals have predicted civil war by now in the US and throughout the west.

I think the thing they haven't considered is the biggest strength of liberal democracies: Buy-in.

If these were monarchies, obvious oligarchies, or tyrannies, people certainly would have revolted by now, but people who hate what's going on are going "Ok, let's keep trying to vote the buggers out".

The "Civil war" in the US for now was giving the Republicans the whitehouse, the senate, and the congress. The "Civil war" in Canada for now was kicking Justin Trudeau out of power.

However, we know from history that revolts do happen in liberal democracies. It just takes longer, and when it does happen it's ugly. The US civil war was one of the bloodiest wars in history, killing more Americans than either of the world wars. The collapse of the Weimar republic led to a global world war. Spain collapsed when it became clear none of the elites intended to allow democracy to continue. Lebanon collapsed when the balance of power it maintained no longer represented reality on the ground. Czechoslovakia collapsed when the nearby German regime became too powerful and dangerous to ignore. None of these examples ended well for those involved.

So that's an explanation for why we haven't seen the things we expected to see, and also why it could still happen, and if it does happen it'll be uglier than we feared.