Yeah, I know---this will piss off and disgust some here, but some will agree.
I am weary of reading about how the threat of violence by the MAGA/Tea Party/Proud Boys/Oath Keepers/Q-anon Rambo-wannabes should be taken into consideration when decisions about who should be prosecuted are being made.
As clearly as I can say it: if these skulking masked cowardly thugs are all it takes to intimidate "the system" and let smirking traitors go unpunished, this democracy will not deserve to survive.
I do not believe there will be anything approaching the "civil war" that some predict if we "dare" indict and prosecute Trump. If some of the deranged Trumpies are stupid enough to start playing soldier in an effort to keep "their president" out of prison, the survivors will be promptly arrested and, in due course, prosecuted.
And, these miscreants should not buy into the ignorant assumptions that we "liberal snowflakes" are all unarmed pushovers. Not wanting to hurt people is not the same as "won't fight back".
So, let's "hew to the line and let the chips fall where they may". And, if that pisses off the camo cavalry---we'll deal with it..
= new reply since forum marked as read
disagreeing with what the law and voting public have decided and agreed upon, maybe we could actually have an active security force that would be in place BEFORE any problem arose - should somebody see a potential problem (yeah, wouldn't THAT be different!). 
And besides, I don't believe we have anybody in any position of authority that would actually fail to 'do whatever would be necessary' to maintain peace and civility. That is to say, there are now people in position to actually uphold the oath that they took when sworn into office. 
In 1861, the South was united in it's support of slavery. The state's rights argument for the US Civil War fails to address that the right the Southern state's wanted was that of slavery.
Yes, the South was also upset about taxes, but I don't see taxes cited in the Confederate Constitution whereas slavery is. Also, the KKK formed in the aftermath of the Civil War, and I don't know of any anti-tax organizations formed circa 1871 [when the Klan was formed].
I don't see any uniting issue in the GOP today. Trump? MAGA? Stop The Steal? Immigrants? Owning the libs? They are fractured and we're watching the Grand Old Party, the Party of Lincoln, the Party that once stood itself fractured over how to address slavery yet stood together to fight and end it, is a mess. Yes, thousands came to D.C. to Stop The Steal, but it was only the dumbest of the dumb and their "tactics" showed them to be overall very inept. Yes, there were those who brought weapons, and a person of interest remains at large for bring pipe bombs to D.C.
So we need to
I can't think of a thing to add, as it's all been said. 
If we give in, we are done.
applied as a reason for not prosecuting.
More of a worst-case possibility that must be considered by those who study and apply these things.
And that gives the 24/7/365 pundit brigades something to grab attention with when it's slipping. As always, no one's forcing us to watch or listen to them earn their living. 
Putin, his thugs, his brainwashed population, his oligarchs not-yet-pushed-out-of-windows, the terror he so enjoys inflicting -- and half of Europe. If we - United States and Ukraine -- worry only about a sick terrorist's lies, and if we tiptoe around Russia's hallucinations and red lines, Ukraine will weaken and fall. And if Ukraine loses, we all lose. But iff Ukraine ups the ante, I believe Putin can no longer play.
So tip-toing around Trump and philosophizing over indictments, is not unlike cowering to Putin and his insane and hopefully impotant posturing. Trump tries to emulate Putin's destructive proclivities, so we must resist any temptation to let him go free for ANY reason. If we indict him and put him behind bars, it will be in a straight jacket, and we will have a better chance dealing with his die-hard worshippers. It's been said that Russia's pre-Ukraine-war had an economy the size of California. Now it is being decimated, and now is our chance to win.
Similarly, if we Democrats cower at threats made by sociopathic liars, we have already lost. If Democrats see our domestic fascists for the unprepared unimaginative cowards they are, they can easily be defeated and deflated. Domestic terrorism has no centralized command or resources to match even a tiny portion of America's potential power. Even magats embedded in the military, law enforcement, Congress, politics, and churches will be relatively powerless -- unless we fail to dig them out. We must find and USE the antidote for the poison in our democracy.
(Atticus, if I've echoed your words, I can only say that "we all stand on the shoulders of giants."
