14 November 2016
Face the facts, Clinton partisans: although an affront to
democracy, Trump’s election is Constitutionally legitimate
Hillary Clinton appears to have won the popular vote, thus denying Donald Trump’s policy agenda a popular mandate. But Donald Trump won enough states that he will win the electoral vote, the vote by which we elect Presidents. His victory is constitutionally legitimate.
That should go without saying, but, reports the Washington Post, a sizable number of people who voted for Clinton do not consider Trump’s election legitimate:
A 58 percent majority of Clinton supporters say they accept Trump’s election, while 33 percent do not. Questions about Trump’s victory are passionate — 27 percent of Clinton supporters feel “strongly” he did not win legitimately.
There are sharp racial and gender differences in Clinton supporters’ acceptance of the results. Only 18 percent of whites who supported Clinton say Trump is not the legitimate winner, identical to the public overall, but fully 51 percent of black, Hispanic and other nonwhite Clinton supporters say Trump’s victory was illegitimate. Women who supported Clinton are twice as likely as men to question the legitimacy of Trump’s victory, 42 vs. 21 percent.
Undoubtedly, some of the Clinton partisans now questioning the legitimacy of Trump’s winning the Presidency — the people howling “we wuz robbed!” — are the same people who mustered impressive outrage and indignation when during a debate Trump refused to swear he would accept the verdict of the voters.
Denying the election’s Constitutional legitimacy, taking to the streets, blocking freeways and worse, festooning oneself with safety pins, and other inchoate expressions of primal rage and despair, do nothing to muster effective opposition to the policy initiatives of Trump and the Congressional Republicans. That conduct only embarrasses the nation and what’s left of the Democratic Party, and provides Trump and the GOP with aid, comfort, and encouragement.