Inauguration boycott shows we need term limits says Jim Bagwell

I’m writing this on Monday. I’m embarrassed this subject should be the news of the day. As I write, about 31 Democratic senators and representatives are issuing statements they will boycott the inauguration of duly elected Donald Trump as the 45th president of this great nation. Today was supposed to be about Martin Luther King.

One of the mainstays of our style of government is every four years we have a peaceful, civil and smooth transition of power in the office of president. We’ve accomplished this in 44 previous attempts with several coming from the loss of presidents to death and even resignation. In a number of previous transitions of power we have differed greatly on the direction the newly elected president might take the country politically, but never to the point of civil unrest. This inauguration should also occur as a peaceful celebration.

As President Obama stated after his election, “Elections have consequences.” This election was not unique, the results were. Hillary never once thought she could be beaten by a neophyte of the likes of Trump. After all, she was the anointed one, the first woman and the right person to carry Obama’s legacy into the future. Just one problem, Obama forgot the middle class and Hillary didn’t care enough about them to include them in her campaign.

As a young man, I remember the strong opposition to John Kennedy for several reasons. President Kennedy’s faith was Catholic. This was litigated at the ballot box as the anti-Catholics presented their case to the public and were defeated in their attempt to use religion as a cause celeb to deny a candidate the White House. The second was his appointment of his brother as Attorney General. Neither of these reasons caused the opposition party to boycott the inauguration of Kennedy.

During this same time, the United States was embroiled in attempts to solve race issues. Dr. Martin Luther King was a stabilizing force in finding peaceful and reasonable solutions. King’s casket exploded today as he rolled over in his grave remembering how far we came and now how far we digress. Obama was elected in part to carry race relations into the future. Unfortunately, he failed. He interjected himself into areas he should have ignored resulting in the beer summit, Ferguson and several others that turned out to be significantly different than first stated by the president.

Now a president-elect who seemingly doesn’t play in the politically correct arena is taking the reins of power. Trump needs to close his Twitter account or at least tamp down the responses to stimuli that become corrosive. This election was about the people, not the political elites, so all of our politicians need to act like they represent you and me, not each other and their special interests.

What better statement for term limits at the federal level than what we’re seeing today. Who elected these idiots into the lifetime ruling class? If they had class and felt that strongly about the results of this election they would resign and live the rest of their lives in obscurity. Sometimes I wonder if they could survive if the public trough wasn’t there for them to feed at.