(I don't think all the stuff above is very likely, because I think the Trump hold on power is a lot shallower than most, but I do think there's going to be polling station violence in some places, continuing conflict between federal and state law enforcement, and a lot of lawsuits after the election contesting individual vote counts, far more so than Bush vs Gore. Especially over postal ballots.)
May I direct your attention to the Cultural Revolution? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution
The possibility is there.
> The US military is completely unified behind the preservation of the US government.
I agree! But what happens if the question of "Who is the commander-in-chief" becomes unclear?
That is the possibility that's on the table. If there's an absolutely clear victory in the next election and the loser steps down, then we're in way better shape.
Posse Comitatus remains intact, and factional violence is left in the hands of domestic law enforcement (whatever that looks like at the time).
Which is what I'm seriously hoping for.
But if not... once again, I'm amazed to even be considering that possibility, but it's there.
That's splitting hairs.
Mao's Red Guards -- student revolutionaries and young adults -- effected a drastic shift in power, from a more liberal government to Mao (a strong authoritarian), and something on the order of three million people died as a direct consequence.
Moreover, China lost an unbelievable amount of its history, as revolutionaries purged the "Four Olds" (customs, culture, habits, and ideas).
Let me give you an examples of a Lebanese civil war
Second, it's not that US potential adversaries have ever cease attempts to recruit 5th column in the general staff.
A big double digit percentage of civil wars in 20th century were foreign power assisted, if not staged, and triggered by them.
US generals with extreme right political views are ripe for taking for a country that seemed to ace recruiting rightist elements for its cause. You know what country I am talking about.
It's the patchwork of law enforcement who are more willing to cause street-level trouble. We've already seen one protest which involved people bringing guns to a state legislature. What if there was another one, in response to an "abolish the police" candidate winning locally, and the police backed the occupiers over the legitimate state government?
Calexit isn’t supported by even half of the California population. These scenarios are nothing more than fantasies for people who like to discuss war scenarios.
Kitsap
Pearl Harbor
San DiegoBest (with non-generic probability) scenario for secession I can imagine at this point: under a foreign nuclear umbrella, the west coast agrees that (a) in exchange for retaining responsibility for the federal debt, the US gets all the nukes, and (b) Ecotopia gives the US a long term lease on the bases mentioned above, à la Subic Bay.
As Hawaii was originally filibustered in to the Union, it might be poetic justice for it to join Ecotopia, but both finances and Pearl Harbor would far more likely leave it subordinated to the haoles in DC.
(Unlike Vancouver with the Trans Mountain Pipeline, Ecotopia doesn't seem connected to the US' crude pipeline network, so that part would be easy. Financially, the west coast would find it easier to balance their budgets if they were independent. I doubt Ecotopia would retain any inland territories, but under capitalism and in the absence of blockades, money gets you through times of no food much better than food gets you through times of no money.
I've discovered the items above en passant, so I haven't bothered running down the rest of the feasibility arguments — but I'm sure someone, or even multiple someones in multiple jurisdictions, has.)
[1] Note that the B-52s have recently been relocated from Guam to somewhere in flyover country without, according to the USAF, affecting their missions. (What mission a 70-year old design could still have is above my pay grade.)
Bonus track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SOryJvTAGs
I would go as far as to say we're in a cold one right now.
I would not have imagined this possible four years ago, but now, given the level of division... yeah, it appears to be on the table.
That's cause for fairly grave concern, by the way.
Imagine that the election goes into a toss-up. Which it likely will. Both parties have been laying the groundwork to contest the election, between claims of "voter suppression" and "voter fraud".
I don't think either team would accept anything other than an absolute landslide victory from the other side. And even then, maybe not.
I could see the Western seaboard (plus Hawaii) seceding in the case of a Trump victory. In the case of a Biden victory, I'd expect years of domestic insurgency, which I'd still call a "civil war".
Either way, I don't see any way out for the US right now that isn't outright ugly.
I very, very much hope I'm wrong, of course, and that things calm down after November (regardless of who wins).