I posted yesterday about the two hundred and twenty fifth anniversary of Jefferson's election in the extraordinary contest of 1800. The greatest achievement of the American system as it was understood in its early days was that power could be peacefully transferred. That election led to what was considered a marvel of human history — the peaceful transfer of power between rival factions. Federalists handed the government to Republicans. The test for America was that revolutionaries who had broken with England proved they could govern themselves without the sword. (There were lots of examples in history of the opposite.) That tradition survived the Civil War, two world wars, assassinations, Watergate, and the resignation of a president. It was broken on January 6th, 2021, when a sitting president lost an election and tried to overthrow the will of 81 million people, through, in some cases, force. substack.com/home/post/…