I would put my money on less car bombings and more targeted assassinations and sabotage by so called 'lone wolves' in the American Troubles. The modern surveillance state and decades of FBI practice has made larger scale, top down organization very difficult. Even the distributed 'affinity groups' of the Communist radicals (BLM and Antifa) would get rolled up pretty quickly if they weren't tacitly supported by their Democrat infiltrators in the government and law enforcement. The levels of organization and resources required for IRA-type campaigns would be too vulnerable to infiltration by Humint or Sigint. Conversely, the country and its officials and infrastructure are so numerous and so spread out across vast swaths of territory that they are very difficult to defend from the theoretical ARA. Ireland was able to be held by a very small number of troops, but even if every cop, NG and soldier/airman/sailor was handed an M-16 and given a corner to stand on they couldn't hold a quarter of the landmass. Even in regards to specific targets, there simply aren't enough security resources to give every mayor or Governor or government official the same kind of protection as the head of the executive branch - even large cities like New York couldn't afford the kind of 24/7 security cordon needed to keep one lucky sniper from doming their officials. Even assuming the executive is left unscathed, how will his or her government run when their councilors, advisors, and other, less well guarded assets get blasted almost as soon as they are replaced? Even avoiding direct bloodshed, there is no way to continually safeguard the garbage trucks, subway lines, bridges, power stations, water pumps, and every other spec of infrastructure that is not only the lifeblood of the city, but has been neglected for decades. The open secret is that most utilities are held together by duct tape and continual human effort, even a temporary worker's strike could cripple them for months - sabotage would be devastating.
The long and short of it is that the American Troubles will be a lot less organized, and a lot more violent. So I agree with you 100% about that. Me personally, I'm dedicated to living a life of peace here on the farm, so I plan to never be involved in such shenanigans. I've got my corn, my family, and my Bible, thats all I need.