OPINION:
Only yesterday we were told to worry that crazed Trump voters might refuse to accept the inevitable triumph of Hillary Clinton, and take to the streets to riot, brawl and otherwise threaten law, order and the survival of the republic. Crazed deplorables were likely to march in organized regiments of evildoers to burn down the country. Neither women and children nor a lot of the men would be safe if the unimaginable happened.
Well, the unimaginable happened, and sure enough, so did fire and blood in the streets. Calling them “demonstrations” does no justice to riots. But these were the enraged Hillary voters, if they had bothered to vote at all, marching from the fever swamps of the left — the Black Lives Matter crowd and the overprivileged brats of campuses far and wide who, encouraged by their professors, can’t accept the fact that others have a right to disagree with them.
In the wake of the “unacceptable” decision of millions of voters, many colleges and universities have established access to psychological counseling and “safe places” for students “grieving” about the outcome of the election. Many of them are unable to grieve in private, like grown-ups do.
The postelection reaction of the left quickly became a rant that continued into the weekend. Many disappointed Democrats promised to depart the country, and leave those of us who are staying to deal with their absence as best we can. The betting here is that we, and the country, will survive. Petitions are in circulation from ambitious malcontents in Oregon, California and Washington, with the support of two or three filthy-rich one percenters, threatening to secede from the country they say is no longer theirs. Perhaps they missed history class the day they would have learned that better men than they tried that once. Secession was not a big success.
Some of the stragglers from the events of Nov. 8 in Portland, Oakland and Los Angeles apparently concluded that since America is no longer their country, and the Donald is not their president, they might as well burn the country down and leave only smoke and ruins. The “uprising,” if a few acts of vandalism can be called that, was less violent in New York and Chicago, and others have rushed to the internet with death threats to Trump voters and calls for the assassination of the president-elect. Some unruly citizens promise to disrupt the inauguration.
Similar demonstrations, albeit less violent, broke out in New York and Chicago and Trump haters have filled the internet with death threats and calls for the president-elect’s assassination. Mobs in California and Texas thrashed high-school students who admitted having voted for the Donald even in mock elections.
President Obama and Hillary Clinton were gracious in defeat, however painful the results of last Tuesday, urging their followers to man up to good citizenship. Others on the legitimate left are taken aback by the mindlessness expected in banana republics. Chris Matthews of MSNBC was particularly scornful of the rioters claiming to be exercising First Amendment rights of free speech. “They have every right to speak,” he said. “They don’t have a right to stop traffic. They don’t have a right to get in the way of commerce. That’s not the First Amendment. They lost.”
The winners should look to the example of Donald Trump, who spent 90 minutes with President Obama and together set an example of how winner and loser can, with exemplary good will, plan together the smooth transfer of power that is expected in a nation that sets an example for the world. There should be neither insult from one side nor gloating from the other. Winston Churchill said it best, and he often did: “In defeat, defiance. In victory, magnanimity.”
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