There is no reason why the U.S. presidential election should be an existential battle in which the losers get obliterated. It is possible to work through deep ideological differences, but it requires hard work. Take a comparative case study from my own country, South Africa.
Ours was a deeply divided society given the twin histories of colonialism and apartheid. Since 1994, we have worked hard to build democratic institutions—and a political culture—that can help us live with and work through our bitter divisions. We remain a divided society, and our democratic institutions are under enormous pressure, but we are never quite at risk of our relatively young democracy imploding, even though there have been—and continue to be—very daunting threats to the political system, especially predatory political elites stealing from the public in cahoots with private interests.
