He's Not My President

Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election sparked protests across the nation Wednesday, with crowds marching through city streets, rallying at college campuses and staging walkouts at schools in an open disavowal of the president-elect. (Los Angeles Times web site, November 9, 2016, 9:00 PM)

It wasn't so long ago. People predicted rioting in the streets after Trump lost. His supporters – the mob – wouldn't consent to the decision of the voters. That was the fear.

And they rebuked Trump for not guaranteeing that he would accept the results of the election. It was not the American way to disregard the results of the democratic process. Al Gore had disputed the results of the 2000 election, but that was acceptable because of claimed miscounting in Florida by those who opposed him, while Trump reserved the right to dispute because he asserted that the election was “rigged,” and such a view was ridiculous.

We live in a democracy. We're a country of laws, not, as the cliché goes, of men. We respect the process. And that process was largely decided in the eighteenth century by the liberals of the time, the Federalists, who favored a strong central government. But just as the constitutional rules they devised applied to both the liberals and the conservatives of that age, they're binding on all of us. The greatness of our nation results from our adherence to our constitution, and to the observance of the democratic process.

The election has taken place, and, as predicted, there are protests from coast to coast. But they're not protests of those who supported Trump, who was elected President, but of those who opposed him. Those who, prior to the election, spoke on behalf of the democratic process are now denying its validity. The election didn't go as it was supposed to. They didn't win. So if they protest, if they refuse to accept Mr. Trump as President, they're entitled to do so. It's their right as American citizens, and they've been raised to believe that they should always get their way.

I didn't vote for Donald Trump, but he's my president [elect]. I don't support most of what he advocates, but he's my president. I didn't support his predecessor either, but there was no denying that he was the leader of my country. My country. Our country.

During the period when we were engaged in Viet Nam, many Americans protested by moving to Canada. (Of course we later forgave them for their disloyalty.) And there are now rumors (I suspect they're apocryphal) that Canada has closed its borders to US immigrants because there are so many of them. When liberals take issue with American policy they riot, burn our flags, or leave the country. They practice a politics of entitlement or revolt – “my way or the highway.” Even if I have to take it. If conservatives were to do the same they would be scorned by those who are employing such remedies now. They would be scorned as we condemn those whom we accuse of having divided loyalties simply because they are concerned about the fates other countries as well as that of the United States.

Secretary Clinton and President Obama have accepted the election's results. They have issued eloquent pleas for unity and cooperation. Certainly they are unhappy about the result of the election, but, as good Americans, they will abide by the process. They're ready to move on.

And happy or not, we should, too.