President Obama emphasized showing it to the world because world history shows that democratic elections turn into dictatorships when elected leaders refuse to give up power. Without a peaceful transfer of power there is no democratic process, there’s just elections that give a democratic appearance to tyranny.
World history also shows citizens of the world protesting sham elections, the outcome of rigged contests or, in some places, the disappearance of rival candidates. None of that happened in the United States during the 2016 presidential election, but a new generation with a new motto (What is the government going to do for me?) immediately stormed the streets after the election and protested.
But they weren’t protesting voter suppression, intimidation, or the sudden elimination of term limits, they were protesting an outcome they didn’t expect.
In other words, their candidate lost.
Their actions are personal not political, and it’s an insult to people around the world who risk their lives protesting actual injustice to label this disturbance of the peaceful transfer of power a protest. They’re using their first amendment rights to exercise a temper tantrum against the very process that safeguards their rights.
One protester said they’re protesting “to make a statement of political instability to render it difficult to govern, and in particular, to make it impossible for Trump to implement any of his policies in the first one hundred days.”
Great, but start after the inauguration.
The current democratically elected two-term president earned his opportunity to continue America’s tradition of transferring power in peace.
There is a time to protest and a time to refrain from protesting.
It doesn’t take the Wisdom of Solomon to know the difference.
(J. Pharoah Doss is a contributor to the New Pittsburgh Courier. He blogs at jpharoahdoss@blogspot.com)
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