Your Opinion: Another civil war is not the answer

Don Fleener

Jefferson City

Dear Editor:

In 1860, there was a contested election to replace a Democrat President Buchanan. In the election, four candidates were pitted against each other. Abraham Lincoln, a Republican; John Breckinridge, a Southern Democrat; Steven Douglas, a Northern Democrat; and John Bell, Constitution Union candidate. The Southern Democrats opposed Abe Lincoln because of his stance on slavery. In the election, the Southern Democrats, in an attempt to sway the election, did not place Abe Lincoln's name on the ballot in 10 Southern states.

Abe Lincoln won the election with the popular vote and Electoral College vote. Instead of a peaceful transfer of power, he was met with the secession by the Southern Democrats. The hate for Lincoln spun out of control fueled by the southern press. After several negations, General Beauregard fired on Fort Sumter. The Union held out as long as they could, but reinforcements could not reach the fort in time. This rebellion against the United States of America was the start of the Civil War. The hate of the Southern Democrats toward Lincoln never ended even with his assassination.

Race forward to 2016 when Donald Trump won an upset victory. The Democratic Party would not accept him as being the rightful president. Their first attack against him was a character assassination with the Russian collusion as we now see it was initiated by the Clinton campaign and supported by many Democrats. The next play in their book was to start an impeachment trial with the thought that he might resign just as Nixon did. He refused and decided to fight. The Democratic Party lost. They reached the end of the playbook and decided to use the 1860 method to stoke the fires of discrimination in the Democratic cities where we see chaos and riot instead of peaceful protest and a willful resistance of elected officials to protect their citizens and their property. Will this civil war spin out of control where neither side can stop it? The plight of George Floyd has been lost in this power struggle.

History by the Democratic Party is repeating itself. The Democratic Party thirst for power is endless and will do anything to regain it. If they wish to regain power do it in the proper way through the ballot box. We must learn from our history and not repeat the same mistakes again. A civil war is not the answer.