The call to arms has been issued, and the young activists are marching on Washington.  It’s time to protest the 2017 Presidential Inauguration with parades and speeches and picket signs.  Why?  Well, mainly because we can’t get change any other way, right?

People have accused the President-Elect, Donald Trump, of fraud and perversion, of crimes and hate and serious nastiness.  One of these people is Mr. Trump himself, who appears to enjoy defaming himself on Twitter.  Not many politicians could survive even one of his mis-tweets; he’s given us dozens.  And that doesn’t even touch the court cases and the controversial ethical choices he’s making during the transition period.  They called Reagan the Teflon president; Trump appears instead to be constructed out of hard rubber.

And, to be perfectly honest, I too find the man’s affect somewhat odious.  He doesn’t behave with the grace and decorum we expect from a President, especially his Twitter account.  But then, he’s not President yet; I’ll let him enjoy Twitter until the Inauguration… but the day after — did someone say “unPresidential”?  (Oh.  “Unpresidented”.  Hunh.  I actually can’t add anything to that.  How irritating.)

So does Robert Reich.  (Find him odious, that is.)  According to him, “Donald Trump became president by lying, demeaning women, denigrating racial and ethnic minorities, denying intelligence reports of foreign intervention in our election, excusing violence against opponents, and undermining the freedom and independence of the press…

“…[I]n my view, attending Trump’s inauguration gives tacit support and approval to someone who poses a clear and present danger…”

But to be fair to Mr. Trump — and we’re told that even the Devil has his Advocate — he did get elected by being who he is.  He’s a performer, sure, but that just makes him larger than life; what we’ve seen is an exaggeration of his true self.  Which means, by the way, that he got elected by being odious.  He got elected because he was the sort of person who would say and do those things that Mr. Reich lists.

That tells me that, if there’s a clear and present threat to our nation, it’s the sixty-odd million voters (nearly a third of all potential voters!) who supported him.

Either that or it’s that one third of our country despises another third of our country.  That latter actually seems more reasonable to me as a clear and present threat.  There were similar numbers during the Revolution.

Granted, the President-Elect is a very disturbing man, and the major alternative would also have been an unpleasant option, at least to a lot of voters. Those two facts together should tell us quite clearly that we desperately need to change the way we choose our candidates.

Someone give me a blueprint toward doing that and I might even protest the Inauguration if they ask.  Otherwise… no.  Peaceful transition of power, followed by very close scrutiny.

That’s what a free press is for, after all.