We’re about ten days to go until the 2020 national election at the time of this writing. As we draw closer, people are really doubling down on their political tribalistic natures – some to the point that they can no longer hide their authoritarian nature or animosity toward those who don’t share their worldview.

Case in point: Someone I follow on Facebook posted an image his friend took of a note that was left in his mailbox. See below.

Now, this could be a complete hoax – just someone, who will never make good on the promise expressed in the letter having a laugh at the expense of a Trump voter. Regardless, this is intimidation. It’s meant to cause fear to the point that the recipient will take down his Trump signs and perhaps even refrain from voting for the 45^th president.

Whether the author is 100% serious, this is what our elections have come to. We can clearly no longer have polite discourse and let the elections play out as they will, with the losing side preparing for a better turnout next time. No. We are now entering the realm of the kind of threatening behavior we thought was confined to elections in corrupt Third World countries.

This is what having such a large government has brought us. It’s seen as a tool to control others via force, and the “get out the vote” movement is more accurately expressed as “let’s make our opponents pay for their ideological crimes.”

While voters don’t really determine the policies or methods by which the subjugation of others is achieved, they feel satisfied that they had a role in determining who will execute their favored authoritarian policies.

This note is an example as to how passionately a growing number of people feel about achieving their desired political goals. Will there actually be another civil war? Who knows? But it’s clear that such an outcome isn’t off the table, even rhetorically.

Once again, as we’re apt to do at Peaceful Separation, we must ask, “Why is this preferable to the dissolution of the United States?” Why do we want to live with others who hold completely opposite values and share a political system that creates such animosity when the electoral or legislative results instill such anger?

This is no way to live. The moment someone puts pen to paper (or in this case, finger to keyboard) with the intention of threatening a nonviolent person simply because of his support for a particular candidate, the author should take a step back and think about what has driven him to that point. Is this the way he wants to live? Mired in hatred?

It would be better for both of these people to live in separate societies under different legal arrangements that better suit their principles and will face little resistance from ideological opposition.

It’s a scenario that can happen if more people begin to think more of it as a preferable alternative to a world in which people feel so threatened by a fellow citizen participating in the democratic process that they feel justified in writing such a threatening message.