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Speaker 1: You wake up before your alarm. No sunlight peaks through

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Speaker 1: your window. It's far too early for that. You're confused

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Speaker 1: for just a moment, and then you hear another explosion.

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Speaker 1: It echoes in the night, rattling the walls in the

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Speaker 1: window of your apartment. This is not the first bomb

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Speaker 1: you've heard, and it sounds far enough away that you

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Speaker 1: know the danger isn't a minute. That surprises you a

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Speaker 1: little bit, the fact that you recognized it's not close.

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Speaker 1: You realize you've now heard enough explosions to have a

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Speaker 1: pretty good ear for them, and when they're close enough

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Speaker 1: to worry about. It's weird how quickly life in a

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Speaker 1: war zone becomes just life. You get up, there's no

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Speaker 1: sense trying to get back to sleep. As you stumble

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Speaker 1: over to the kitchen to grind some coffee, you hear

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Speaker 1: the crack of rifle fire. It's distant, too far enough

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Speaker 1: away that it sounds almost like firecrackers, but you know

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Speaker 1: it's not. You feel the grinder, put on the top

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Speaker 1: and press down. Nothing happens. You realize, belatedly your sleep

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Speaker 1: fogged brain that the powers out again. You wonder which

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Speaker 1: of the dozen different rebelent insurgents groups in your state

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Speaker 1: might be responsible. You don't even bother to get out

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Speaker 1: your phone and check the news. It doesn't really matter,

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Speaker 1: and you've got shipped to do. It's still dark outside,

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Speaker 1: and since you're already up, you might as well take

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Speaker 1: advantage of the situation and beat the crowd to the

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Speaker 1: grocery store. As you close and lock your door behind you,

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Speaker 1: you try to ignore the pop and shatter of not

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Speaker 1: so distant gunfire. There are days when you do feel

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Speaker 1: like doing something, maybe even joining your friends, but most days,

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Speaker 1: like today, you've got shipped to do. It's an election year.

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Speaker 1: Every candidate is doing their level best to not call

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Speaker 1: this what it is, a civil war. You heard that

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Speaker 1: phrase out on the street, though, more and more every day.

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Speaker 1: You reach a crosswalk and start to step across on

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Speaker 1: the left. Your eyes are drawn to the massive bulk

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Speaker 1: of a police bear cat as it trundles across the

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Speaker 1: street parallel to you. A man sits up top in

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Speaker 1: the couple up, his hands on a machine gun that

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Speaker 1: for now has its nose pointed up in the air.

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Speaker 1: He stares at you, and you try not to stare back.

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Speaker 1: As you hurry along to the supermarket, you ask yourself

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Speaker 1: the question you've asked almost every day for the last

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Speaker 1: three years, How did it get this bad? Did that

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Speaker 1: seem far fetched? You outlandish? If so, let me try

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Speaker 1: to show you why the preceding passage might well be

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Speaker 1: reality for millions of Americans startlingly soon if something isn't done.

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Speaker 1: The Second American Civil War doesn't sound like a crazy,

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Speaker 1: distant possibility to me, and it hasn't for a while.

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Speaker 1: I'm Robert Evans, and it's my job to help you

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Speaker 1: see what I see. Two thousand sixteen was the first

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Speaker 1: year I started seriously considering the possibility of a second

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Speaker 1: American Civil War. It was the year I reported on

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Speaker 1: the major protests surrounding the most contentious election in modern

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Speaker 1: American history. I was there at the r n C

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Speaker 1: in the d n C, and at both I saw

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Speaker 1: tremendous hatred on display. I also traveled to a Rack

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Speaker 1: in two thousand sixteen to report on the Siege of Mosel.

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Speaker 1: But nothing I saw there, nothing I saw anywhere that

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Speaker 1: year scared me more than watching Alex Jones speak on

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Speaker 1: the first day of the RNC. These are not liberals

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Speaker 1: welcome to It could happen here. The podcast where every

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Speaker 1: season I take some fantastic, unlikely scenario and explain how

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Speaker 1: it could happen, why it might be closer than you'd think,

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Speaker 1: and how it will look when or if it comes Listen.

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Speaker 1: It's subscribed on the I Heart Radio app, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcasts