AMERICANS AGAINST HATRED AND BIGOTRY.

DUMP TRUMP.

NOT MY PRESIDENT.

[EXPLETIVE] UR WALL.

WE WON’T GIVE UP.  WE WON’T GIVE IN.

UNITED WE’RE STRONGER (you have to love the irony).

These are just a few of the slogans that bedecked the nation-wide protests against Donald Trump’s electoral victory, i.e., against the American democratic system.  Accompanying images included swastikas and pictures of Adolf Hitler.

Of course, protest is a fundamental part of our democracy, guaranteed by the First Amendment (which, incidentally, many Yale students petitioned to repeal).  But protest is only productive when it advocates a viable solution to a problem.  When protest is nothing more than collective whining, it easily turns into mob violence —  indeed, as it did in several instances.

So what do the protesters actually want?  To repeal the democratic process?  To overthrow a legally elected chief executive?  Public lynching?

If they want to advocate dismantling the electoral college, they might find support on both sides of the aisle… but only for the next election cycle.  And they could make their point without vandalism, arson, or public obstruction.

On the other extreme, you have college students so traumatized by the election results they have requested exemptions from classwork and midterm exams.  Such fragility does not bode well for the future leadership of the country.

It’s a pity we can’t conjure up an alternative reality portal; it would be amusing to get a glimpse of how the anti-Trump contingent would be reacting — had the election gone the other way — to disgruntled Trump supporters protesting the “rigged” election that stole victory from their candidate.

But one does have to acknowledge that sometimes the left is right.  One protest sign manages to say it all: