Against Apocalypse

South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. Until 1933, the date for inaguration of the new president was March of the year following the election, not January, as it is now. By seceding, South Carolina set the stage for the crisis that would face Abraham Lincoln the moment he took office. He had to decide if he would try to supply the United States troops at Fort Sumter, off the coast of South Carolina. Doing so would be an act of war from the perspective of the leaders of the newly independent republic of South Carolina. Lincoln ordered the supply mission to proceed, leading South Carolina troops to fire on the Union position, eventually causing the ill equipped United States troops to surrender to the troops from South Carolina.

The Civil War had begun.

The Civil War lasted almost exactly four years and killed between six hundred and seven hundred thousand people, making it still the deadliest war for people in the United States we have ever engaged in.

It was also by far the largest political disaster in our history.

Events of the past week have caused many people to engage in various forms of apocalyptic thinking and talk. There are multiple ways in which one can predict that the incoming presidency will kill people. It is not wrong to say, by analogy to the Civil War, that the current outcome is like having the president of the Confederacy become president of the United States instead of Lincoln.