The weeks following the election could very well be the most dangerous weeks in this country since the Civil War.
If Donald Trump should lose, he may well not concede. And he will still be president, with all the power that bestows. His supporters will likely be seething, thinking that the election has been stolen. These are seeds he has been sowing for months.
Trump will have command of the military, the Justice Department and part of the intelligence apparatus.
He already knows that the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, is investigating his dodgy finances. Trump knows he could face charges as soon as he leaves office – and he won’t be federally pardoned.
A loss would be a supremely embarrassing rebuke, the first sitting president not to win re-election in 28 years.