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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2020
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost
omnipotent. Henry Ward Beecher
Mike Buffington, editor • Email: Mike@mainstreetnews.com
Armed right-wing protesters outside Georgia Capitol building in December, protesting the election results.
2020, aberration or beginning of the end?
As we enter 2021, we are a nation torn apart.
Our economy is uneven amid the Coronavirus with
some places doing well (like Jackson County), while other
places suffer from pandemic shutdowns. Even worse, the
pandemic has quickly widened the social and economic
gap between the “haves”
and the “have-nots.” It’s a
dynamic fraught with dan
gerous implications for the
future.
Socially and culturally,
we’re a nation depressed
and despondent. The tone
of 2020 has been like a
sledgehammer, battering
us with wave after wave
of bad news and turmoil.
We’re tired and just want
to return to some kind of
“normal” existence.
But it is in our politics
that we’re perhaps the most
damaged. The elections of
2020 have splintered the nation, giving birth to crazy con
spiracy theories. As the year ends, half the nation has been
convinced, without any evidence, that the presidential elec
tion was somehow “stolen” or “rigged.” The sitting pres
ident has attempted to overturn the vote of the people in
the election and cling to power even though he was clearly
defeated at the ballot box.
Next week on Jan. 6, Congress meets to accept the re
sults of the Electoral College vote, a vote that names Joe
Biden as president.
Some observers, however, believe there could be chaos
on the streets of Washington that day, chaos driven by un
founded social media stories and encouraged by the pres
ident.
•••
If you think this is just some minor thing, think again.
Some people are calling for violence in the wake of the
election. Not since 1861 and the start of the Civil War has
an election ended with this kind of ominous cloud.
Consider:
• In November following the election, a right-wing pas
tor in Florida called for Democrats and members of the
media to be shot by firing squads if they had conspired to
rig the elections (the election was not rigged.)
• A lawyer with President Trump’s campaign said that
former U.S. cybersecurity official Christoperh Krebs
should be “shot” for having rejected claims that the elec
tion was stolen from Trump.
• In early December, armed protestors congregated
outside the home of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn
Benson and demanded that she overturn the results of the
state’s balloting, which showed that Joe Biden had carried
the state. Some Trump supporters had earlier been arrested
in a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor, a Democrat.
• Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who
went to prison for lying to the FBI but was pardoned by
Trump, has called on Trump to declare martial law and
send the military into Georgia and other swing states to
force an election do-over at the point of a bayonet. Others
have echoed Flynn’s call for what would be a military coup
in the nation.
• The head of the Arizona GOP has called for Trump
to “cross the Rubicon,” a reference to when Julius Caesar
crossed the Rubicon River and started a Roman Civil War
after which Ceaser became dictator.
• Closer to home, Georgia officials have received death
threats after they refused to overturn the state’s election re
sults, which went narrowly for Biden.
• In Facebook posts, some local citizens have called for
Georgia’s leaders to be arrested and “strung up” because
they refused to overturn legitimate votes and give the con
test to Trump.
• ••
All of which begs this question: Has America become a
banana republic?
Since when did calls for violence following an election
become part of the American political lexicon?
This is deplorable.
No matter who won the election, this nation has a tra
dition of holding a peaceful transfer of power (except in
1861.)
We don’t resort to violence and intimidation. We don’t
threaten to kill people because the election doesn’t go our
way.
Even many of Trump’s own supporters have balked at
these calls for violence.
But Trump hasn’t.
In fact, he has egged on those who would do violence in
the name of politics.
Over the weekend, he Tweeted a message to supporters
to rally in Washington on Jan. 6. “Be there, will be wild,”
he said.
Protesting is one thing, but Trump’s Tweet is a thin
ly-veiled call for people to threaten Congress as they ac
cept the vote of the Electoral College.
According to some administration insiders. Trump has
mulled the idea of declaring martial law because he lost
the election. Some observers believe that Trump wants to
foment violence on Jan. 6 as a cover to declare martial law.
Deplorable.
I’m doubtful that Trump would seek to use the military
to overturn the election and even if he did, it’s unlikely the
military would follow his orders.
But the fact that it’s even discussed makes for a sober,
sad beginning to 2021.
• ••
If the nation can avoid this political violence, the year
2021 may be a year of hope, a new beginning.
As the vaccine for the pandemic began to slow its spread,
there’s hope that our lives will return to normal.
There’s hope that we can again gather with friends and
family.
There’s hope that our jobs and economy will stabilize
and provide less uncertainty.
There’s hope that our children can return to school amid
a normal atmosphere.
There’s hope that we can bury the political divisions that
have haunted 2020 and find a path toward a more bipartisan
spirit in public offices.
• ••
And yet. I’m worried.
We may indeed have a glorious rebirth in 2021. In fact,
we may enter a decade like the “Roaring ‘20s”.
We all want to forget 2020, close the door on it, move
forward and not look back.
But I fear the seeds of something sinister were sown this
year, seeds of a terrible fury that someday will ripen with
vengeance and violence.
No nation can survive when half it’s people fall for fake
propaganda and demand that fair elections be ignored and
overturned.
The year 2020 may have just been an aberration in our
history, a fever that will soon break.
Or it may have been the beginning of the end.
Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspa
pers. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
Letters
Vote, democracy
is under attack
Dear Editor:
The old country saying,”do not put a Fox in the
chicken coop” can be an interesting allegory to
many situations. You know what a will do because
of what it has done in the past.
Politicians will do the same as they have done
in the past. If they have supported national park
damage to produce fossil fuels and been complicit
in withdrawing support for cleaner waterways in
cluding small streams they will do it again. If they
have taken action to reduce affordable health care
for poor people and have tried successfully to sup
press the vote of some citizens in a true democracy
they WILL do it again.
So don’t put foxes in the chicken coop. GO TO
THE POLLS AND VOTE, or do it again by mail
for we do know what they will do because they
have and will do the same thing again.
Foxes learn from other foxes and their masters.
Our democracy is under attack and we, the voters,
must defend it at all cost.
Sincerely,
Paul Smith
Hoschton
Time to stop the fear
Dear Editor:
I remember as a kid sitting
in a tree and running through
the lyrics of “It’s a Small
World” to figure out why it
was dangerous. Word had
come down from somewhere
at the Air Force base where I
lived that we could no longer
sing that cheery song in our
school chorus because of its
message.
There’s so much that we
share
It’s time we "re aware
It’s a small world after all
Was it the sharing? I loved
going to the library, where
we could share books — or
swimming at the base pool.
Only later did I understand
that fears of Communism
have kindled ridiculous —
and sometime deadly— im
pulses. For about a hundred
years now, politicians have
used cries of “Socialism!” to
galvanize voters and thwart
any kind of change that hurts
the bottom line of corpora
tions and the ultra wealthy.
The endless repetition of
“radical socialists!” is an
indication of how hard Re
publicans have to work to re
brand as frightening the kinds
of things Democrats fight for:
humanely extending health
care to more Georgians, tax
ing the richest Americans to
fund preschool eduction and
infrastructure, and helping
people facing hunger and on
the edge of eviction.
The song’s lyrics are still
pertinent today:
It’s a world of laughter, a
world of tears
It’s a world of hopes and a
world of fears
There’s so much that we
share that it’s time were
aware
It’s a small world after all
Turning us against one an
other — that is what is rad
ical. Let’s lean toward hope
and compassion and not fear
to respond to a country and
world and planet in crisis.
Sincerely,
Pat Priest
Athens
The Jackson Herald
Founded 1875
Merged with The Commerce News 2017
The Official Legal Organ of Jackson County, Ga.
Herman Buffington, Publisher 1965-2005
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher & Editor
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher & Advertising Manager
Angela Gary Associate Editor Features
Alex Buffington Braselton New Editor
Ben Munro Sports Editor
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