The Logic Gap
The protests continue. New York City, Chicago, Oregon. College campuses. They have been covered with exquisite detail by the media. They have been egged on by professors with axes to grind. They have also been energized by people who are paid by a variety of left wing groups to do so. In fact, since they are being paid for these services, what we are seeing is the birth of a NEW profession: “community disorganizer”, you might say!
Now, some people sympathetic to the protests will say that the protestors are merely expressing their opinions which is their right. True! There’s no question that they have a right to do so, and this right is guaranteed by the First Amendment through right of free speech and the right to assemble. So I will not criticize the protestor’s right to demonstrate. What I will criticize is their stupidity.
There is absolutely no provision in our Constitution that allows the removal of a fairly elected president because a portion of the electorate is unhappy. None at all. So they can protest till the cows come home, and the elected president will remain. These angry individuals should have been protesting BEFORE the election in an effort to sway public opinion to their point of view, not after the election has taken place.
Next, I think it’s fair for us (professors take note) to question, what I’ll call the logic gap. Protesting the election of Donald Trump involves more that just saying “I DESPISE TRUMP.” Since Trump HAS been fairly elected, the protests, logically, impugn not only him, but our electoral process as well. Do they really want to protest participatory democracy? Can they, with a straight face, claim that our media treated Clinton unfairly?
Do they really want to override the will of the electorate? The logic of the protests just doesn’t hold up.
The only plausible thing that can be questioned with any kind of logic, here, is the electoral college system. And the electoral college system is a complicated topic. Even though it goes all the way back to the founding of our nation, the electoral college and the popular vote were discrepant in only four cases:
Trump/Clinton, Bush/Gore,
Cleveland/Harrison and Hayes/Tilden. In the case of Grover Cleveland, the electoral college favored the democrat. And in 2004 it almost favored the democrat again. If John Kerry had just 60,000 votes more in Ohio, he would have won the electoral college (and the presidency) even though George W Bush was 3 million votes ahead in the popular count. So, protesting the electoral college system is logically ok, but not the type of issue that’s clearly Republican vs. Democrat, or left vs. right. It’s also not the type of issue that should bring people to barricades in the streets.
Now with the complete ineffectiveness of the current protests to change the results of the election, and with the logical gap explained above, the question arises: “What’s UP with these people?”
One thought that comes to mind is simple: people LIKE to protest. Especially YOUNG people like to protest. Especially in our “victim” driven society. EVERYONE is a victim. EVERYONE has something to protest.
One of my favorite moments in the early Occupy Wall Street movement is when the “leaders” called an emergency meeting in Zuccotti Park. What did they call the meeting for? They called the meeting to decide WHAT THEY WERE PROTESTING!
One of the amazing aspects of America’s protests over the past 5 years or so, is that the protestors (almost all Democrats) were spewing antiRepublican criticisms in places where the democrats were IN CHARGE, and (in our big cities, for example) and HAD been for many years! There were also many instances where blacks were protesting racism where the police chiefs and mayors, WERE black!
They’re protesting the Republican establishment of the 60’s, but it’s the Democratic establishment in charge! (Thanks LRM).
And there is vast irony in all of this:
Black protestors crying racism are often demonstrating against (and, in some cases, killing) black police officers.
Inner city dwellers are protesting the police officers that keep them safe from the horrendous violence that surrounds them.
The unemployed are protesting against people and businesses that can actually give them jobs.
The poor are advocating the same tired policies (and tired politicians) that have KEPT them poor for decades.
And democrats are, unwittingly, protesting the performance, largely, of the democrats they’ve elected!
These groups are fighting an a recurring battle for battle’s sake, apparently unaware that their swords are drawn against themselves.