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PAGE 4A 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 MEMBER • Georgia Press Association • National Newspaper Association • Inland Press Association • International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors Postmaster: Send Address Changes To: MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. PO Box 908 Jefferson, Georgia 30549-0908 Web Site: www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com Email: mike@mainstreetnews.com Voice: 706.367.5233 Fax:708.621.4117 (news) Periodical Postage paid at Jefferson, GA 30549 (SCED 271980) Yearly Subscriptions: $45 / $40 for seniors