For people who love politics, Inauguration Day is like Christmas morning or Easter Sunday. We celebrate a new leader, a new administration and some of our nation’s finest choirs, performers and military heroes.
No matter our party, whom we voted for or what we believe, it is an opportunity for all Americans to come together and commemorate our democracy. Our fantastic, complex and messy democracy.
In both of President Obama’s past inaugurations, civility was the norm. While there were groups that protested, by and large, they remained peaceful, exercising their legitimate right to free speech and assembly, while maintaining basic respect for the president and the office he occupies.
This year, however, civility took a sharp downward turn during the parade and events surrounding President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
As of late Friday, Reuters reported at least 217 people being arrested in outbursts of violence on Inauguration Day.
So-called demonstrators tripped Trump supporters. Limousines and vehicles were set ablaze and videos emerged showing people screaming as they heard President Trump recite the oath of office.
Even Larry King could not escape the chaos. The SUV he was riding in had its windows smashed out.
If it were not for the violence they caused, it would be easy to laugh this off, as a symptom of the entitlement culture that pervades too many in our society, Republican and Democrat.
This behavior, however, an attempted interference in the peaceful transition of power from president to president, is unacceptable and should be treated as such.
My hope is that President Trump makes it clear to the American people, and especially to those who engage in violence, that this will not be tolerated from any one person or any one group, regardless of their political ideology.
It is imperative that the violence that often masks itself as peaceful protest be dealt with accordingly, with special efforts also made to ensure that peaceful protestors are able to preserve their rights.
To their credit, many national Democrats, including President Obama, President and Secretary Clinton, Sen. Schumer and Sen. Sanders, were models of grace during the ceremonies.
But many others were not. More than 60 House Democrats refused to attend, an unprecedented action that did not occur at either of President Obama’s inaugurations, including in 2009, or at any presidential inauguration since at least 1973.
If the goal of these groups was to diminish President Trump, they will soon find that this only energizes his base and disillusions the middle Americans whom Democrats failed to reach out to in 2016.
My hope is that common courtesy and civility find their way back into American politics in 2017. President Trump shares some of the blame, but the actions of some at his inaugural ceremony, and many in the media, only promote discord in our country.
We all must remember the words of President George W. Bush, in his 2001 inaugural address, when he said “Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos.”
Patrick Waters is a sophomore accounting major from St. Louis, Missouri.
