It is the day America and the world have been preparing for, where either the Trump legacy will continue or be assigned to the history books.  Regardless of which side prevails, it would be a serious mistake to believe that anything will be settled.  The nation is now too divided to accept the result in peace. One of the great dangers in modern democracies, and not just in America, is the increasing tendency to speak in terms of good or evil, right or wrong, good or bad, us or them.  This protagonist-antagonist blood battle has taken the very flexibility out of democracies that once counted on compromise to legitimate themselves.  Things appear so rigid, so fully inflexible, so set in stone, that it's virtually impossible to imagine a more respectful, tolerant, understanding state once the victor is declared.  Everything is about winning, not governing, so it stands to reason that those divisions haunting America at the moment will remain long after the ballots are counted. A severely divided nation doesn't just come together of its own accord following electoral contests.  Abraham Lincoln couldn't do it.  Joe Biden won't either.  And Donald Trump views his path to success only through the creation and stoking of divisions.  This is just the makeup of America at the moment and Election Day 2020 can't alter it. These divisions have been roiling for decades, fed by party machines and special interests bent on power at all costs.  But the electorate bought into this dichotomy over that same period, permitting themselves to shaped into political fodder instead of an advanced citizenry capable of searching out the common ground. Recent history has revealed that those political movements over the decades were washed away within an election cycle or two, often seeing polar opposite choices from those made only a few years later.  Barack Obama's election was to be the beginning of a more inclusive America, but the anger at his election and the gullible fashion in which millions of citizens bought into the false narratives ruined any move forward.  Now, only four years after Obama left office, the country looks and is run totally different.  The worst instincts of the country aren't just running through the streets of the nation but are now housed in government policy and practice.  It is a dark time, fueled by divisions and hate from both sides. Some words or phrases common in political circles a mere decade previous are now gone from the political lexicon.  Coalition, compromise, cross the aisle, common ground – these and more disappeared years ago.  Everything -everything - now is about power not progress or principle.  And it's becoming increasingly apparent that the court systems across the country are being stacked by partisan hacks and could further divisions for decades or centuries to come. If Biden wins, Trump will say the election was stolen.  If Trump prevails, Democrats will say it's because of lies, false advertising, of anti-American bias.  How can a winner truly emerge from something like that?  It is a raging fire, not a simple result of who got the most votes, and it will consume all who come near it.  The moment a victor is declared, the losing side will begin planning to storm the Washington ramparts before the sun rises the next morning.  Yes, millions of Americans are from the Left and millions from the Right, but all Americans are angry, exhausted and seeking remediation for all the struggles they are enduring. America must begin again, but how can it do so when the key players hate one another to such a degree?  Can forgiveness emerge out of fury?  Perhaps.  Can unity be found in all that umbrage?  It's possible.  But this is what the country has been reduced to: the need for a new humanity, purged of its basest elements.  Americans are a good people, valued members of the human family, historically supportive neighbours to Canada, and capable of remarkable exploits.  But right now, their nerves are shattered and their political associations are primed for endless battle.  If democracy is ever to prove its ultimate genius, it will be at this moment in time, in America, that it will have to perform its magic once more and providing a new birth of freedom. All this will take decades of rebuilding and restoring, and it will be helped along by allies like Canada.  But in the end, as in all democracies, it will be the will of citizens that will determine the outcome.  Democracy's most vaunted shrine was never in a capitol or a monument, but in the quiet and private confines of the ballot box.  Today's outcome will depend on what happens in that moment.  It remains democracy's greatest transaction and its most dangerous encounter.  Glen Pearson was a career professional firefighter and is a former Member of Parliament from southwestern Ontario. He and his wife adopted three children from South Sudan and reside in London, Ontario. He has been the co-director of the London Food Bank for 32 years. He writes regularly for the London Free Press and also shares his views on a blog entitled “The Parallel Parliament“. Follow him on twitter @GlenPearson.