I'm going to add this to my post above on all this civil war talk.
The way I see this potentially going down if POTUS wishes to preserve the Republic in the event of civil war is for him to order the military to treat ALL sides as enemy combatants.
That is one way in which the military might find it easier to follow orders to take action against American citizens and remain a cohesive force. They are now divested of their own political affiliations if both sides are equally targeted and the litmus becomes any who take up arms. Period.
Lincoln did what he did to preserve the Republic, just as it should be today. He just had a situation in which opposing sides where neatly arranged between North and South.
The way I see this potentially going down if POTUS wishes to preserve the Republic in the event of civil war is for him to order the military to treat ALL sides as enemy combatants.
That is one way in which the military might find it easier to follow orders to take action against American citizens and remain a cohesive force. They are now divested of their own political affiliations if both sides are equally targeted and the litmus becomes any who take up arms. Period.
Lincoln did what he did to preserve the Republic, just as it should be today. He just had a situation in which opposing sides where neatly arranged between North and South.