【明報專訊】The notion that civil war has returned to the US is really a harrowing one. But the US today is very polarised indeed. Biden and Trump received 51.4% and 46.9% of the vote respectively, which shows how fierce the competition was. Though in recent presidential elections, the votes garnered by the two sides have all been very close, there have been no fierce violent clashes after the election except the latest one. The civility of the American election culture lies with the fact the losing side concedes defeat and congratulates the opponent on his victory. While this may be a hypocritical thing to do, when the losing side immediately prepares for the next election, it shows how fair competition can be guaranteed by a fully-fledged democratic election system.