If America sees a civil war, it will not be the last: historians

• After the FBI raid on Trump’s Florida home, some on the right are calling for civil war.
• Some experts say warning signs of civil war have been emerging in America in recent years.
• But such a conflict, they say, looks very different from the civil war of the 1860s.

In the wake of the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, some far-right extremists are spreading violent rhetoric, including calls for violence online.

The Republican Party has long portrayed itself as a defender of “law and order,” but the raid has seen GOP lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green call for protection of FBI funding.

Green also referred “civil war” On social media, the Republican colleagues compared the FBI to the Gestapo and explained that the raids only take place in “Third World” countries.

Meanwhile, pro-Trump internet channels have been seen talking about civil war following the raid.

The FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lagoon home comes at a historically divisive time for America, as millions of voters continue to believe the false idea that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump.

Such false claims are at the heart of last year’s riots at the US Capitol on January 6, and historians and democracy experts warn that these lies continue to fuel the potential for further violence. They also say that if America had seen a civil war, it would not have been the first.

Fiona Hill, who served as the National Security Council’s top Russia expert during the Trump administration, told Insider last month that Trump and his GOP allies’ lack of trust in the election process and government institutions had created a “recipe.” to collective violence,” Hill warned that America could eventually “become in conflict with one another.

The country is at a point where “trust in different communities and authorities” is eroding. “At that point, people start fighting each other,” Hill said.

But she explained that the current civil war is unlikely to resemble the American Civil War, an unusually bloody war between the Union and the Confederacy that killed an estimated 618,000 to 750,000 Americans.

“I don’t think we’re going to get into the kind of conflict that we had between the states — the Union and the Confederacy,” Hill said. But civil and uncivil ways of resolving disputes are out the window.

Less than a week after the attack on Trump’s home, an armed man tried to break into the FBI office in Cincinnati. Authorities have not released a motive, but the man – who was eventually killed by police – is said to be being investigated for links to far-right extremism.

Suspected gunman Ricky Schiffer appears to have posted calls for war and violence against the FBI on Trump’s social media network, Truth Social.

One post reads, “If you haven’t heard from me, it’s true that I tried to attack the FBI.” An account bearing Schiffer’s name repeatedly exposed Trump’s election fraud, according to CNN, and multiple reports suggest the suspect may have been at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

‘All warning signs of civil war are emerging’

Jon Cherry/Getty Images

Barbara F. Walter, a political science professor at the University of California, San Diego who specializes in political violence, warned the New Republic in April that “all the warning signs of civil war are there” over the past six years. They’ve popped up in the United States, and they’ve popped up at an amazing rate.

Walter, who has done extensive research on the Civil War, expanded on this in an interview with The Washington Post last month. Like other scholars who view these issues, Walter says the U.S. is not headed for a conflict similar to a war between North and South.

“When people think of the Civil War, they think of the first Civil War. And in their minds, this is what the second is like. And of course, that’s not the case at all,” Walter told the Post. “What we’re heading towards is an insurgency, which is a form of civil war. That’s the 21st century version of civil war, especially in countries with powerful governments and powerful militaries, which is the United States.”

Walter went on to say that an insurgent group tends to be “more decentralized” and a conflict between multiple groups. “They use unconventional tactics. They target infrastructure, they target civilians, they use domestic terrorism and guerrilla warfare. Hit and run raids and bombings,” she said.

Right-wing extremists have been known to look to the so-called far-right bible, “The Turner Diaries,” for blueprints on how to bring down a superpower like the U.S., Walter said. The book, which is revered by white nationalist groups, tells the fictional story of the Civil War against the American government.

“It’s one of those things. Don’t blame the US military. You know, avoid it at all costs. Go directly to targets that are hard to defend and disperse, so it’s hard for the government to identify you and infiltrate and completely destroy you,” Walter told the Post.

Studies show that terrorists like the Oklahoma City bomber were inspired by “The Turner Diaries.”

At a recent meeting at the White House, a panel of historians warned President Joe Biden that the United States is facing a threat unlike any it has seen since before the Civil War, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Historian Michael Beschlos, who raised the issue that American democracy is in danger of survival, is reported to be one of the scholars who spoke to Biden. Although he is sounding the alarm about the current threats to American democracy, Beschloss also notes that the civil strife in the US in 2010 “It cannot be compared to the devastating war of 1860,” he said.

decided he said. In a post on social media on Thursday, he said, “If any civil war ever confronts Americans (God forbid) it will not be two armies fighting over one big issue (slavery) like 1861-1865, but an occasional escalating outburst as our federal government tries to enforce the rule of law.” “The Attack”