US citizens generally make the mistake of focusing on the USA, as though it were some kind of unique laboratory. In reality, all over the world we see that qualification-free representative democracy is collapsing because it was such a terrible idea. Nobody ever planned it - even the US Constitution assumed a tiny electorate of wealthy educated white men - and not surprisingly it's now collapsing under its internal contradictions. Most ordinary people are simpletons, unable to grasp even the most basic elements of the real world. We can't be surprised, therefore, that they are easily manipulated by blustering demagogues in precisely the way Plato warned more than 2,400 years ago. Ordinary people want simple-minded soundbites that promise easy answers to complex questions. And we know that ordinary people are mostly incapable of changing their minds even when empirical evidence clearly shows their beliefs are erroneous - instead, ordinary people double-down on their beliefs. Now let ordinary people vote regardless of their incompetence and you get... what we see all around the world. It's not a USA problem; it's a problem arising from the fact qualification-free representative democracy is utterly unfit for purpose. As for civil war, we know from history that ordinary people simply normalize whatever situation they find themselves in and remain largely passive. Sure, a few extremists will act violently but the vast majority will just keep their heads down and believe whatever they're told because that's always the easiest thing to do.