January, 2017: Shrill Voices of Childish Protest

As soon as Donald Trump had been sworn in as the new President of the United States on January 20, 2017, the self-serving displays of petty displeasure began. From one coast of America to the other, thousands and thousands of aggrieved people, many of them behaving as if they were unhappy infants with a particularly bad case of colic, poured into the streets of major cities, where they loudly gave vent to their trendy, ill-founded anger. Throughout the land, the winter air carried the shrill voices of childish protest.

Why did all those angry protesters not make themselves seen or heard during the years in which President Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, chose to pursue an ongoing course of violent action that resulted in hundreds of civilians being killed by drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen? Did they regard Mr. Obama's ruthless warmongering as not requiring any form of protest? It seems that President Trump's detractors are merely pompous hypocrites who can, whenever it happens to suit them, comfortably accept unforgivable instances of coldblooded homicide on the part of their government.

Donald Trump is, unquestionably, both a loathsome person and a repugnant leader, and as President he is certain to do wrongful things (in keeping with the long, dishonest tradition of past Presidents), but he is actually no worse than most of his fellow Americans, including most of those Americans who are so eager to condemn him for ill-defined reasons. If the protesters who stand against President Trump truly are concerned for the future of their nation, perhaps they should look more closely at their own shallow motives.