Post-Election Protests

After the election results were settled, Hillary Clinton gave a very gracious concession speech, and likewise Barack Obama and Donald Trump apparently had very cordial meeting at the White House.

However, since then there have been widespread protests in various cities across the U.S. The theme of these protests has been "Not My President". Who are the participants of these protests, and what has motivated them to take to the streets? Is it an organized attempt to de-legitimize Donald Trump's presidency before he even takes office?

Links at Instapundit.

• KELLYANNE CONWAY: Clinton, Obama Need To Calm Down Anti-Trump Protesters. 
• Robert Creamer visited the Obama White House 342 times. 
• Anti-Trump Protests: Proof Of Professional Activist Involvement.

Also:

• Violence on the Left - John Hinderaker
• Democrats: Vicious, Violent, Anti-Democratic - John Hinderaker 
• Inside The Anti-Trump Protest Movement - Blake Montgomery 

  Along with the anarchists, core organizers of the protests have included the ANSWER Coalition, a group with roots that trace back to supporting the Soviet invasion of Hungary in the 1950s, and the Socialist Alternative, a Trotskyist group on the other side of those forgotten Communist civil wars. Those groups’ organizing muscle has long made them important, if controversial, elements of the US left (they were central to protests against the Iraq War in 2003), and they now find themselves marching with Bernie Sanders supporters, civil rights advocates, and thousands of Democrats shocked at Trump’s election.

Who is ANSWER?

• Behind the Placards - David Corn

And finally, a quote from the great Tom Wolfe:

Marshall McLuhan once said that moral indignation is a standard strategy for endowing the idiot with dignity. I think that's quite true these days.

Election 2016 - Inciting Violence

The media narrative is that Donald Trump and the Republican Party incite violence, creating fear in the hearts of a wide variety of American citizens. But let's face it, only one candidate and one political party has actually intentionally incited violence in this election.

Rigging the Election - Video I: Clinton Campaign and DNC Incite Violence at Trump Rallies -- Project Veritas

Also:

• Senior Democratic strategist resigns after video surfaces showing his staff planning to incite violence at Trump rallies and discussing paying mentally-ill people to disrupt GOP events - DailyMail.com
• Two Democratic operatives lose jobs after James O’Keefe sting - Dave Weigel 

Election 2016

I'll admit to being something of a political junkie. And this election has probably been a once-in-a -lifetime event. The political newcomer -- scorned by the media, and fashionable society, and the intellectual class, and the Washington bureaucracy -- comes from behind on election night to win against all odds.

The post-election fallout has been tremendous. Half of the electorate is going through the seven stages of grief. The other half has generally had a more subdued reaction: surprise, relief, schadenfreude, etc.

To both groups I'd like to say it's only an election. Life will go on, and there is a lot of work that needs to be done.

Also, the presidency was never intended to be an all-powerful monarch. So while the president does hold a lot of inherent authority over the executive branch, and is able to veto legislation, and nominate Supreme Court justices, that authority must also balanced out by the other branches of government.

Finally, the solution to most of America's problems are best addressed through the human spirit, and are thus best approached by inspirational or persuasive means rather than legal or authoritarian means.

On the lighter side -