What you're describing are anomalies. Most Presidental candidates are not "nearly JFK'd" nor do mobs storm the Capitol with regularity. For all of its cultural

What you're describing are anomalies. Most Presidental candidates are not "nearly JFK'd" nor do mobs storm the Capitol with regularity. For all of its cultural pretensions of being a nation of armed patriots always ready to "water the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants" the US political system is for the most part incredibly stable and nonviolent. In ancient Greece, meanwhile, violent mobs, assassinations and tyranny were the norm rather than the exception. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasis_(ancient_Greece) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasis_(ancient_Greece) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Tyrants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Tyrants