Rather, Donald Trump is the duly elected, properly sworn-in president of the United States of America. On inauguration day he doesn't belong to you or to me, he doesn't belong to Republicans or to Democrats. Whether you voted for him, whether you virulently opposed him, whether, like me, you couldn't in good conscience bring yourself to vote for him, whatever the case, he is the president.
Earlier in the campaign, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan had accused Trump of representing a "virulent strain" of American nativism. Nonetheless, he was there to deliver the first invocation. His choice of King Solomon's prayer for the gift of wisdom hints pretty clearly at what he thinks our president most needs, and perhaps what he most lacks. But again, the good cardinal was there.
President Obama was there. Vice President Joe Biden was there. Tradition and protocol may have demanded their presence, but Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were also there. People on both sides of the isle were at the inauguration, bitter political rivals all, because they recognized, and they were ready to affirm publicly, the smooth transition of power that makes American democracy the great institution that it is.
What of the dozens of Democratic lawmakers who chose to skip the inauguration? What, particularly, of Georgia Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights hero, who said he couldn't attend because he didn't believe that Trump was a "legitimate" president? How can these lawmakers conflate their political and ideological differences with the legitimacy of a transfer of political office from one holder to the next?
Believe me, I've already enumerated elsewhere the ways that I think Trump was a dangerous choice for president. But now he is the president, and any discussion, any protest, needs to start with this fact.
*****
There will be a time to protest. Not today, but as soon as tomorrow, I suppose, for the Women's March on Washington. It's too bad that that the Women's March organizers chose to conflate their legitimate concerns regarding Trump's misogyny and his anti-immigrant stance with an ill-advised call for greater access to abortion. There will be a local version of the Women's March tomorrow in downtown Raleigh. I'll be downtown tomorrow, but for the other march occurring downtown, the local version of the March for Life. I'd put money on the Raleigh News & Observer granting front-page coverage to the former march, while pretending that the latter never happened.
I will also be traveling to the national March for Life in Washington, D.C., next Friday together with the entire student body of the school where I teach. No doubt the national media will give plenty of attention to tomorrow's Women's March but pretend that the hundreds of thousands who come on Friday for the March for Life were never there.
But maybe somebody is listening. Top White House advisors don't have speaking engagements without the president knowing about it. But after eight years of the White House pretending that the March for Life didn't exist, Kellyanne Conway, a top Trump advisor, a faithful practicing Catholic, and a former marcher herself, will address the crowd, together with Cardinal Dolan.
That's the Cardinal Dolan who prayed for the gift of wisdom for our legitimately elected, properly sworn in president.
I'll join the good cardinal in his prayers.
*****
UPDATE (1/21, 10 p.m.): To their credit, the News & Observer did end up sending a reporter, who wrote a solid article on Raleigh's March for Life despite the far larger march also occurring downtown. I'd easily put the number of marchers at about 2,400 on a dreary, misty day, but otherwise, credit where credit is due.
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