(NYTIMES) Here is a sentence I never in a million years thought that I would ever write or read: This November, for the first time in our history, the United States of America may not be able to conduct a free and fair election and, should President Donald Trump be defeated by Mr Joe Biden, have a legitimate and peaceful transfer of power.

Because if half the country thinks their votes were not fully counted due to deliberate sabotaging of the US Postal Service (USPS) by this administration, and if the other half are made to believe by the President that any mail-in vote for Mr Biden was fraudulent, that would not result in just a disputed election - not another Bush v Gore for the Supreme Court to sort out - that would be the end of American democracy as we know it. It also isn't hyperbole to say it could sow the seeds of another Civil War.