By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – On both the local and national levels, I feel that someone ought to speak up for keeping calm.
Yes, the Chargers have moved to Los Angeles after 56 years in this market place. For so many loyal fans, it is sad, disappointing, but hardly the end of the world. Relax my fellow San Diegans. Eventually another NFL team will come to town. Good weather, loyal fans, and a binational media market reaching some 5 million people, how can they resist?
As one who voted for Hillary Clinton, I was disappointed that Donald Trump won the presidency. There was even more sting to it when I realized that Clinton had received nearly three million more votes than Trump did.
But, the electoral college system was created by the founders of our nation, and it was clear that Trump’s victory in the electoral college was decisive.
So he will become the next President on January 20th.
I note that in addition to Michelle and Barack Obama, the former presidential families of Hillary and Bill Clinton will be attending the inauguration, as will Laura and George Bush, and Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter. Ill health will keep Barbara and George H.W. Bush away from the ceremony. If the Clintons and the George W. Bush family can overcome their disappointment in the election — each having had a family member lose in to Donald Trump in a contest marked by personal insult — surely we can follow their good example.
The peaceful transfer of power from one civilian president to another is one of the most important features of American democracy. It symbolizes the idea that no matter how hard fought the election– even if some believe it was unfairly fought — nevertheless we willingly submit ourselves to the same U.S. Constitution. When all is said and done, we are a people who harken to the call of the Constitution’s preamble: it is our duty “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”
President-elect Donald Trump angered many people during the campaign, among them Muslims, Mexicans, and persons with disabilities — the list goes on and on. Some people can’t forgive him, and argue that to simply go along with his Inauguration, without meaningful protest, is to “normalize” that bad behavior and to abandon the causes of those whom he maligned.
I applaud what Michele Obama has said on more than one occasion: “When they go low, we go high.”
We’ve already seen that Donald Trump can “live down” to our negative expectations. Let us take a deep breath, give appropriate deference to the awesome moment when the leadership of the world’s most powerful nation passes peacefully from one man to another, and see whether Trump, upon gaining that office, can “live up” to the nation’s positive expectations.
*
Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com