Wretchard, question about your Comment No. 3. You said, in talking about persons who would be distraught at an electoral loss: “[b]not a single one of them suggested, even remotely, indirectly or tangentially, that they would not respect the laws. An electoral outcome would break their heart, but it would not break their loyalty.”

So I believe also. But take your comment about Niall Ferguson and the bond markets one step further. What if all these people were asked to break their loyalty? What if one of the candidates, for example, refused to accept the result.

Nobody ever marched on Rome till Lucius Cornelius Sulla did in
88 BC. Sulla was given great provocation by his enemies, and he had some justice on his side, but what he did was most definitely against the law. And ever after, everybody with a grudge who could rally or crowd or an army remembered Sulla’s example.

The Republic has always worked because everybody accepts the rules. What if somebody with real standing buys into all this talk about “Second Civil Wars?” In such case, we have a long way to fall.