I’m glad to be not alone in fearing what might happen on Election Day, which occurs on Nov. 8.

Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump could lose the election to Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton in a big way.

He might get buried in an Electoral College landslide. For that matter, it could even be a popular vote landslide.

But just a little while ago, Trump laid down a frightening notion.

He might not accept defeat the way losing candidates traditionally have done. Remember when he said the “only way I am going to lose” is if the election is “rigged.” He said the only way for “Crooked Hillary” to win is to fix it so she gets more votes than he does.

What’s going to happen, then, if — after the news organizations declare Clinton the winner — and Trump fails to make the phone call to the president-elect, offering his congratulations and then stands before his supporters to concede defeat?

Eli Stokols, writing for Politico, thinks it’s entirely possible that Trump won’t concede. He won’t acknowledge what the rest of the world would have just witnessed.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/donald-trump-concede-succession-227252

Stokols writes: “Among the values most necessary for a functioning democracy is the peaceful transition of power that’s gone on uninterrupted since 1797. What enables that is the acceptance of the election’s outcome by the losers,” said Steve Schmidt, the GOP operative who was McCain’s campaign strategist in 2008.

Trump’s insistence that a “rigged” election would result in his defeat seems to put that tradition into imminent danger.

As an American who rather likes political tradition, I see this as a potentially terrible development.

Again, as Stokols writes: “The damage this is going to do to various institutions is going to be long term,” said Charlie Sykes, a prominent conservative radio host in Milwaukee who has been one of the country’s most outspoken and consistent anti-Trump voices. “How do you restore civil discourse after all of this? He is a postmodern authoritarian who’s in the process of delegitimizing every institution — the media, the ballot box — that can be a check on him.”

Are you scared yet? I am.