The Left’s Politics of Petulance – Be Afraid…Be Very Afraid

The peaceful transition of political power.

For most of human history that was unheard of.  Instead, power was wrested from the incumbent by palace intrigue, insurrections, stronger warlords or barons, or out-and-out war.  Even a cursory glance at history confirms this, for much of written history centers around such events, in every nation on earth.

Except one.

For 240 years one of the hallmarks of the U.S. democratic republic has been a peaceful transition of executive power.  Instead of the powerful few deciding who’s in charge by force of arms and war, the Founding Fathers established a system that allows the people to select who they choose as their leader, and the Constitution details how that choice is translated from expressed will into practical fact.

All the phony outrage about the Electoral College deciding the winner, instead of the popular vote total, simply reveals an appalling lack of historical knowledge (or, more likely, a partisan, self-serving do/say-anything-to-get-your-candidate-elected mentality).  If there were no Electoral College, then about seven or eight large states would decide the presidency in every election, leaving the rest of the nation without a voice in choosing the nation’s leader.  Today, most of those states (e.g., California, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, etc.) are considered Democrat states, so no wonder the Democrats are calling for an end to the Electoral College, for that would guarantee that the presidency remains in Democrat hands perpetually.

In the U.S., a sitting president willingly vacates the White House, turning over the reins of power to the president-elect.  Much of the world watches every four years in amazement that the greatest power held by a human on this earth is willingly and peacefully given up by the one holding the office of president.

That peaceful transfer of power is possible only because the American people believe in, and demand their politicians abide by, the rule of law, regardless of their personal opinions about the worthiness of the person elected by the voters.  There is no requirement that the losing candidate or party be happy about the choice the people have made, for it’s the right of “we, the people” to make the choice, and that choice, good or bad, is the rightful heir to that office.  Without this adherence to the rule of law, the losing side could refuse to cede power, or spark an insurrection to wrest the office of the presidency by force.

There are signs, however, that this reverence and respect for the rule of law has come to an end.  All those signs come from the Democrat Party and their supporters.

When Obama was elected – and I assure you that no conservative thought that man was worthy of the office, or even remotely qualified – did you see Republicans rioting in the street, attacking Obama supporters, or whining incessantly about how unfair it was that he was elected?

No, you didn’t, because those of more conservative frame of mind when it comes to the rule of law and the Constitution accept that the will of the majority rightly overrides their own wishes, and act accordingly.

However, during the campaign and especially after Trump won the presidency, the mainstream media (i.e., the communication arm of the Democrat Party and other leftists) has inundated us with coverage of the shameless “protests” from the left, the claims that Trump’s victory “isn’t legitimate,” etc.  Social/political commentator and author P. J. O’Rourke has written, “At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child – miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless.  Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.”  We’re seeing the truth of that statement played out daily in the news.

What the “progressives” on the left are really saying with their claims of illegitimacy is that you and I, the American voter, do not have the right to choose a president unless it’s one acceptable to their philosophy.  Don’t miss this: they’re gleefully willing to trash the Constitution and make the rule of law a thing of the past…as long as they get the candidate of their choice.  If they don’t, then they’ll pitch tantrums and make everyone’s lives miserable until they do.

I’ve lived over six decades now, and I’ve studied history and politics from my teens forward, but I’ve never seen the losing party, the supposed “loyal opposition,” behave in a manner that so reveals their utter contempt for the very foundations of this nation.

Voltaire wrote, “I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”  Clearly those on the left in the U.S. today do not share that sentiment.  Instead, they declare the choice made by the people of America illegitimate, because it’s not a choice they have made.  They are free to say so, and they have the right to express their opinion.  But as many have written, freedom means responsibility, and it is the responsibility of us all to accept and uphold the rule of law, even if – especially if – we don’t agree with it.

If the left could today, they’d remove Donald Trump from the White House, gleefully ignoring the Constitution and the expressed will of the American people.  They would do so without shame, just to get who and what they want, and in so doing would demolish the foundations of law and true freedom in this nation.

That is all you need to know about modern liberalism, and why I abhor and oppose it in any and every way I can.  If you appreciate being free, you should, too.