Not every guiding principle in the United States is a law. Many are traditions, customs and best practices that someone came up with at one point and we all stuck to. These democratic norms are in place to facilitate a peaceful, respectful, smoothly-run government (they may not do a perfect job, but we need them nevertheless). So what happens when norms like respectful deference on the Senate floor or accepting election results are broken? science.uchicago.edu/directory/susan-stokes">Susan Stokes, professor of political science at the University of Chicago and Director of the Chicago Center on Democracy gives us the story.