After the Trump verdict, will there be violence?

This question has been keeping me up at night. I wonder if you have been thinking about it as well?

Today's verdict in Donald Trump's hush-money/corporate bookkeeping trial, means half the population is going to be unhappy.  My hope is no one turns to violence.  

As someone who has been a student of politics for more than half a century, I wonder how extremists on both sides are going to react?  Will people remain relatively quiet (i.e., peaceful) like they did when Richard Nixon's Watergate lies forced him to resign in 1974, or will they eventually lash out violently like the Capitol Hill rioters did on January 6, 2021?

Mark my words, one thing is certain:  Today's verdict will not be the last word.  Now that he has been found guilty of committing a felony, punishable by as many as four years in prison, Trump's legal team is expected to appeal.  

I came of age during the 1960s when anti-war protests were almost a daily experience.  Many were peaceful, but some -- like what happened in Chicago in 1968, on Wall Street in 1969, or on campus at Kent State in 1970 -- were not only violent, they turned deadly.  Back then, much of the dividing line over the Vietnam War was generational.  In many cases it was patriotic fathers who served in WWII turning against what they perceived as their unpatriotic sons who refused to enlist.  Today's divide isn't as much generational as it is political.

Over the years, I have heard politics described as a "white knuckle" sport where left jabs and right hooks are expected to bruise an opponent into submission.  Lately, many people I know have begun describing politics as a civil war "blood sport" where a candidate must inflict great bodily harm before knocking an opponent to the ground.  Left unchecked, I submit this "win at all cost" behavior eventually will destroy our great democratic experiment.

So, let this be a warning to everyone now that the jury has rendered its verdict in the Trump trial.  Half the population will rejoice while the other half will be outraged.  The world will be watching how Americans react.  My sincere hope is Donald Trump's supporters will not resolve their grievances violently.

-DF