Picture this: It’s Election Night. The presidential election returns are coming in. The networks and the AP are calling the states like they usually do. New York to Harris, Florida to Trump, etc. And let’s say, based on the exit polls, the networks — all of them, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, the whole lot — end up calling Pennsylvania for Harris. But wait! As the night wears on, it’s clear Trump is cutting the lead in the Keystone State. In fact, the networks, one at a time, slowly put the state back in play. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that whoever wins Pennsylvania, wins the election. By 2 a.m., they’ve called it — again! But this time, it’s Trump they’re declaring the winner in Pennsylvania, and with it, the election. But hold up … another hour or so passes, and now Trump’s lead is down to literally a few hundred votes. It’s too close to call. We’re headed for a recount. And get this — it’s going to take over a month to sort this out and it’s going to end up in the hands of the United States Supreme Court. In the end, the court decides by a 5-4 margin to end the recount, and despite winning the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, Kamala Harris loses, and Donald Trump becomes president for a second time. But of all the shocking elements in the above scenario, here’s the most shocking: While the recount played out, there was literally zero political violence. Sure, there were a few protests on both sides, but everyone behaved. Even after Trump was declared the winner. Whew. Talk about some serious science fiction, eh? I mean, can you imagine? Can you imagine if Pennsylvania was called one way, called the other way, then deemed too close to call, and for over a month, we had no idea who was going to be our next president? And — shock of shockers — everyone was cool while it played out? Yeah, it would be shocking. Except … 24 years ago, that’s exactly what happened. Replace Trump with Bush, Harris with Gore, and Pennsylvania with Florida, and that scenario above happened. And there was zero violence. Even more so, to my memory, no one really cared one way or another. Oh sure, we “cared,” like we cared if Ross and Rachel were going to get back together on “Friends,” but we didn’t “care” like we’re going to storm the capital kind of care. Remember the good ol’ days, when my guy won, your guy won, whatever? Yeah. Dead and buried. Today, we care. Probably too much. After all, we survived Biden. And we survived Trump. We’ll probably survive whichever candidate ends up winning in a few weeks. So why is it so different these days? Well, for one thing, back in 2000, we had nothing to care about. The Cold War was over, it was pre-9/11, the economy was humming. Nothing mattered. Today, of course, we’re in cold wars all over the world, the Middle East is seconds away from blowing up, Putin wants to take over Europe, we’re never not going to be at war with “the terrorists,” and — probably the biggest — social media has overtaken the nation and we’re too stupid to be able to figure out what’s real (not much) and what’s fugazi (almost all of it) on social media. Plus — and not for nuthin’ — Trump is a singular candidate, love him or hate him. But still: If this election isn’t settled on Election Night, we are in for it. Honestly, we’re probably in for it no matter what, but living in limbo? No chance this stays peaceful. We’ve come a long way in 24 years as a nation. Most of it in the wrong direction.