Bizarre, Free Speech, Media, Politics

American University Students Protest Election By Burning American Flag

american_university_seal-svgProtesters around the country have taken to the street in opposition to the decision of millions of their fellow Americans to elect Donald Trump. While his was a fair and free election, the results are clearly unacceptable to the protesters who seem to advocate democratic choice so long as it is their choice.
Some shouted “F–k white America!” I discussed the issue last night on Megyn Kelly on Fox News. (For interview, click here)


Hundreds of students gathered on campus to protest the results. Clearly this is an exercise of free speech, including the burning of the American flag. There is a difference however between protected speech and good speech. The flag speaks to rights not results. Burning the flag is not just hateful but ignorant of its meaning. It represents the promise of democratic change in our society. There are no guarantees that you will prevail . . . only that you have the right compete.

It is not clear what the protesters are demanding. They clearly want to denounce Trump but he is facially the legitimate President elect. More importantly, there is no reason to blame the system or destroy its symbol of the flag merely because your neighbors had the audacity of elect someone with whom you disagree.

161 thoughts on “American University Students Protest Election By Burning American Flag”

  1. Hillary was classless to her followers when she didn’t show up election night to talk w/ all her volunteers. I surmise too many vodka martinis, her drink of choice. Obama was classless today by not greeting the Trump family @ the south gate as is the custom.

    1. Nick, Screw Obama. His precious legacy has already been destroyed all by his own actions (and lack thereof). He was openly dissed by China and also Duterte a few months ago. Meanwhile world leaders are making statements that they welcome relations with President Trump.

        1. Paul, I think the Russians, Chinese and the Philippines are tired of being involved in this neo con game cooked up by W, Obama and HRC & Co. People would rather negotiate agreements rather than spend money ramping up their respective military costs. How many trillions have we spent since 2001? George Kennan, the architect of containment during the Cold War was appalled when NATO began moving Eastward.

          I think (hope??) that the Donald will garner more respect and agreements will be reached that satisfy all parties.

          1. Trump has promised to ramp up military spending and defense stocks are flying off the wall.

            1. I took that to mean he would actually spend it ON the military — not these pet projects that enrich members of Congress and don’t work half the time.

  2. When the President elect made it very clear that, he or his voters, would not accept the results of the election unless he won, and now that he has won, the FOX “talking heads” are upset because the losing voters are not accepting the election. Remember back in the 80’s when the President elect was going through one of his divorces Tom York speaking on one of the Sunday morning talkies said “those who live by the press , can die by the press”, well those who run on hate can become the hated.
    You’ve obviously found a home at the FOX channel.

    1. You obviously only hear what you want to hear. Trump NEVER said he would not accept the results unless he won. He said he would not necessarily accept the results, and that he would have to wait and see. What if he lost by 100 votes because of Illinois? Sheeesh, there’s probably 1000s of Dead Democrats voting in Chicago alone.

      Did Gore just accept the results in Florida? Nobody got mad because he wanted a recount, but only because he just wanted to recount the crooked votes from the Democratic counties.

      All of which I suspect will just bounce off you.

      Squeeky Fromm
      Girl Reporter

    2. David Noe…
      There wasn’t a president elect who was going through a divorce in the 1980s.
      I don’t think that has ever occured with any president elect at any time in American history.
      The closest thing to that was with Gary Hart in 1986. He was a strong candidate for the ’88 race, but dropped out after his affair with Donna Rice became public.
      And he remained married…he and his wife are still married.
      Maybe that was the incident you were thinking of?

  3. Sheriff Who Said It Was Time For ‘Pitchforks And Torches’ Denounces Anti-Trump Protests
    “These temper tantrums from these radical anarchists must be quelled.”
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/david-clarke-trump-protests_us_5824884be4b0e80b02cefa65

    Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, who urged Americans to pick up “pitchforks and torches” last month in response to what he called a “rigged” system, on Wednesday denounced thousands of Americans for demonstrating against the president-elect’s stunning victory over Hillary Clinton.

    “These temper tantrums from these radical anarchists must be quelled. There is no legitimate reason to protest the will of the people,” Clarke said on Twitter, even though the former secretary of state won the popular vote.

    1. No one takes Huffpost seriously since Arianna left. What a joke like Wash Post, NY Times, Daily Kos, Politico, Atlantic, Salon, TPM, The Nation, Mother Jones, Yes magazine, PBS, NPR and all the other sellouts who chose to destroy their journalistic integrity by shillin’ for the Hill.

  4. I saw Professor Turley serendipitously live on Fox News last night. He was truly great. He referred to the protestors as “emotional hemophiliacs” who appeared to have a modern case of the Vapours. LOL! What great word choice he had on live television.

    Keep on trekking Professor Turley. We love you.

    1. david – have you ever seen the documentary on R. Crumb, originator of ‘Keep on Trucking’? Very creepy. It is available on several outlets.

      1. Paul, I agree R. Crumb is totally creepy. I did not know he created the “keep on truckin'” meme.

        1. Autumn – if you watch the documentary, you have this great fear that he is going to molest his daughter very soon. However, he mentions that the family is moving to France very soon. However, he can draw.

    1. Folks, I said a “virtual” hug. No physical contact required. Isaac loves Don Cherry, the great Canadian hockey announcer. Cherry just told all the liberal Americans threatening to emigrate to Canada that they are NOT welcomed. I wonder if Cherry would allow Isaac to return?

      1. Nick – I assume that issac has dual citizenship. They would HAVE to take him back unless he was declared a terrorist.

  7. I think our Canadian friend, Isaac, just needs a big, virtual hug from all of us here.

    2. @Nicks

      I think our Canadian friend needs some Haldol! Or Thorazine. Some kind of damn anti-psychotic. Can somebody who knows him, check and see if he is drooling spittle out the corner of his mouth? Cause he maybe just had a stroke or something, and he is just laying there on the bathroom floor, with his I pad, posting here and slobbering pablum on the floor.

      Squeeky Fromm
      Girl Reporter

  8. wow, How un-American. I think colleges are ruining the people, we need trade schools!

  9. http://www.factcheck.org/2008/02/the-reason-for-the-electoral-college/

    …In modern practice, the Electoral College is mostly a formality. Most electors are loyal members of the party that has selected them, and in 26 states, plus Washington, D.C., electors are bound by laws or party pledges to vote in accord with the popular vote. Although an elector could, in principle, change his or her vote (and a few actually have over the years), doing so is rare.

    As the 2000 election reminded us, the Electoral College does make it possible for a candidate to win the popular vote and still not become president. But that is less a product of the Electoral College and more a product of the way states apportion electors. In every state but Maine and Nebraska, electors are awarded on a winner-take-all basis. So if a candidate wins a state by even a narrow margin, he or she wins all of the state’s electoral votes. The winner-take-all system is not federally mandated; states are free to allocate their electoral votes as they wish.

    The Electoral College was not the only Constitutional limitation on direct democracy, though we have discarded most of those limitations. Senators were initially to be appointed by state legislatures, and states were permitted to ban women from voting entirely. Slaves got an even worse deal, as a slave officially was counted as just three-fifths of a person. The 14th Amendment abolished the three-fifths rule and granted (male) former slaves the right to vote. The 17th Amendment made senators subject to direct election, and the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote.

    1. edm,
      It’s one thing to be able to regurgitate historical facts and another to understand the context of them. It’s commonly perceived that the Declaration of Independence was a lie because all men were not treated as being equal. The principles expressed in that document were an expression of what SHOULD be and not what currently was. This is a vision document telling ALL this is what the United States would seek to become. Once independence was gained and the new government created, the framer’s challenge was to first unite the colonies under this new form of government. If you understand change management, they would never have gotten our current constitution ratified AND kept the hard fought independence if they immediately eliminated slavery. The 3/5 clause was the first step towards eliminating slavery in the United States. Amendments are made to our constitution to move us TOWARDS that vision. That’s part of the strategic management process. The 17th was the progressives major move to gut the power of the states. The House was always to be the People’s voice in government, the Senate was supposed to be the states. The 17th eliminated that power of the states and put it in the hands of the people. Has the 17th eliminated the corruption in politics? No. It centralized power in D.C. and it centralized the lobbyists would continue to influence the Senate.

      1. Olly – when the first 10 Amendments were sent to the states, there were actually 12. 2 did not get approval by the states. One had direct election of Senators. The other required one Representative for every 50,000 people in the state based on the Census.

      2. Olly,

        Gee, I am SO impressed with your knowledge! I never knew anything about this subject before. It’s so good to have an arrogant superior being here to instruct me about American history.

        1. edm,
          I countered your version of history and your rebuttal is one of sarcasm and insults. The facts are easily verified by studying the written explanations of those that created this constitutional Republic. Your response speaks more to your character than mine.

          1. Olly,

            That was not MY version of history. It was an excerpt of an explanation about the electoral college. Sorry that you took exception to my posting it.

  10. I saw some pictures of Trump’s living quarters in Trump Towers. The decor was ghastly – it’s pure dictator chic. There is one picture of him sitting in a gold-plated chair. So the White House will be decorated like we’re in a third world banana republic. Oh, wait……

  11. Wonder why people are protesting against Trump and Pence? here’s just one reason:

    An appeal to Mike Pence: Leave your anti-LGBT views behind
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/an-appeal-to-mike-pence-leave-your-anti-lgbt-views-behind/2016/07/20/bc688de0-4e90-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256_story.html

    … But it is his past support for, and failure to repudiate, the heinous practice of conversion, or reparative, “therapy” that raises an even more disturbing concern: Pence doesn’t just seem to disagree with advocates for equal rights on issues of law. His record suggests that he personally believes LGBT people are abnormal and unworthy of the equal protection of the law.

    As a candidate for Congress, Pence went so far as to endorse a proposal to divert money from a program to help those with HIV/AIDS to organizations “which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.”

    It would be easy to dismiss his past support for this damaging practice as a relic of a bygone age. Unfortunately, it’s not. This week, the Republican Party Platform Committee adopted language approving of conversion therapy in its statement of the party’s fundamental beliefs. It also, by the way, condemned the Supreme Court’s landmark decisions securing equal freedom, dignity and rights for LGBT individuals.

    This isn’t just disappointing and demoralizing to all those of us who want to strengthen the Republican Party by making it more inclusive — it’s horrifying. Today, I am a dedicated Republican who also happens to be gay. But before I found the strength to be who I was, I survived conversion therapy. For almost nine months before my 30th birthday, I had the relationships that I most valued questioned and my life demeaned by the use of techniques, including shock therapy, with no basis in science or medicine.

    It’s easy to see why millennials and many minority groups are not rallying to the Republican Party. That a major party in the United States, and its vice-presidential nominee, don’t reject such a dehumanizing practice (and fight to end it) and speak out for personal freedom and equal rights makes it difficult to see how any part of its economic or security agenda means the same for everyone.

    1. edm,
      Thanks for sharing this perspective. It sheds light into the great divide. And the good thing is that Trump is actually more socially liberal than Hillary and more of a Democrat than Republican it seems. It’s only four years. Let’s see what he can do to help all Americans prosper.

      1. Lee,

        The article was about Pence–the man Trump selected to be his running mate. That speaks volumes.

    2. EDM, very sorry to hear about your hellish experience. A close friend of mine went through something similar and it has affected him for life. Pence is a pig.

      I think Trump wanted General Flynn, but somehow was talked into Pence who is a pro TPP status quo guy. All we can do is pray that Trump remains healthy!

          1. Autumn,

            I never had conversion therapy. I don’t know where you got that idea. I have been happily married to a person of the opposite sex for more than forty years.

  12. Bernie gets why Trump won. Unlike HRC he understands the ordinary folk:

    Sanders Statement on Trump
    Wednesday, November 9, 2016

    BURLINGTON, Vt., Nov. 9 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement Wednesday after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States:

    “Donald Trump tapped into the anger of a declining middle class that is sick and tired of establishment economics, establishment politics and the establishment media. People are tired of working longer hours for lower wages, of seeing decent paying jobs go to China and other low-wage countries, of billionaires not paying any federal income taxes and of not being able to afford a college education for their kids – all while the very rich become much richer.

    “To the degree that Mr. Trump is serious about pursuing policies that improve the lives of working families in this country, I and other progressives are prepared to work with him. To the degree that he pursues racist, sexist, xenophobic and anti-environment policies, we will vigorously oppose him.”

    1. Trump is threatening to do away with EPA so the Bernie protestors will vigorously oppose him.

  13. Professor Turley, re: “While his was a fair and free election, the results are clearly unacceptable to the protesters who seem to advocate democratic choice so long as it is their choice.”

    You hit the nail on the head. HRC supporters are angrier than the majority of Trump supporters would have been. If she had won I would have sadly accepted the results. During this campaign season I have faced a lot of derision and anger from my Hilbot friends when I stuck with Bernie to his bitter demise and then supported Jill Stein. Telling my friends that I hoped Trump win was the final straw. I’ve lost many friends.

  14. The flag might represent democracy to you. It represents oppression and violence to quite a lot of others, particularly in the rest of the world.

    1. The United States is not unique in that regard. Time will tell if this regime change will be one that uses this opportunity to enact domestic and foreign policies under the rule of law and with respect to the principles of our founding.

  15. I doubt these protesters are visionary thinkers concerned for the greater good. This is something more personal. They are afraid because they’ve had it beat into their head’s that rich whites are evil. They are afraid because their college education will not be free and the student loan debt they’ve already piled up will not be forgiven. The high schoolers are afraid because their future free college tuition evaporated on November 8th.Telling them to suck it up won’t work. They’ve been conditioned to think this way and their fears are legitimate. They haven’t been taught HOW to think for themselves so they are reacting in the only way they’ve learned to get what they want.

  16. Actually it’s pretty mild compared to what would have happened if the results were the exact opposite. If Trump had won the popular vote, lost the Electoral College, and lost some key states with such small margins, he would be screaming that the election was rigged, never would have conceded, and would be instructing the most thuggish of his supporters to do just what he primed them to do: take back the country from those who “stole” the election from him.

    It’s as clear as day where trump will take this country. Goodbye, America. It was good while it lasted.

    1. The fact there is no challenge to the vote count is all you need to know about a rigged election. Democrats do not want that level of scrutiny of the vote count as it would expose methods that they will need in two years and most certainly four. Shining a bright light on the flaws would only make it harder to exploit in the future.

    2. Obama already did that, bub! Where have you been the last 8 years while he bowed, kissed rings and butts, embraced people that hated us and laugh at him behind their backs for being a fool, doubled the deficit and made a red line that people crossed while he cowered. I don’t think Trump will ever made me feel shame like that…….

  17. This election was all about the revenge of taxpayers who, for 70 years now, have been victims of involuntary servitude by “a corps of elite who never grew up, never did anything real, never sacrificed, never suffered, or never learned.”
    (borrowing from Bob Dole) Just because the majority of taxpayers are white and those receiving handouts are minorities, doesn’t mean it’s racism. It means reverse racism — the impetus behind this revenge.

  19. I thought JT made a pretty good argument on the Megyn Kelly show.

    I also think this guy makes a good argument:
    “And yet one established Hollywood agent has a different take, even though he voted for Clinton. “This is a town that rewards disgusting behavior, so people being upset is hypocritical,” says the agency partner. “What the cool kids are upset about is that someone they don’t like and someone who is not part of the cool kids won. Time to grow up and move on.”
    Hollywood Studios, Agencies in a Daze After Trump Win: “Many of Us Will Be Scared and Threatened”
    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-studios-agencies-a-daze-trump-win-us-will-be-scared-threatened-945752

  20. Turley

    Trump advocated rejecting anything and everything fair and democratic if the results went against him. His supporters were akin to the racist white separatists to which he is linked. Trump routinely threatened violence and insurrection in the media if he lost. So, now that he has found his way to the White House and some people are protesting, they are the bad guys all along. It never ceases to amaze how the victors write history regardless of its veracity. Turley, you are now firmly established as a Fox news hack and drifting towards hypocrisy.

    Trump won the election by getting the electoral vote, a check and balance device to keep more populous states from overly influencing election results. He did it in a masterful manner focused on identifying himself with the base frustration of Americans and mesmerizing them to equate himself with their salvation. There was no substance, nothing intelligent, and next to no understanding of the realities of America’s problems. There was simply hatred and blame focused upon Clinton and the ‘establishment’ unrelentingly for months on end. If ever there was an example of ‘if you repeat something enough times people will come to believe it-even if it is a lie’ this is it. Trump identified the pulse of the disgruntled and reactionary and through a ‘bio-feedback’ of sorts grew a mob and controlled it. A mob is still a mob and by definition they herd in one direction without understanding the reasons nor the caring about the repercussions. It’s been going on for thousands of years. It’s really not that complicated. Somebody whispers in somebody’s ear and when the right catch phrase is found, it’s off to the Oak Tree in the square.

    This blog is inhabited by the same sort and increasingly dominated by those masquerading as legal experts and commenters. Trump, throughout his life, has broken endless laws and gotten away with it because of the privilege of wealth. Trump has bullied the little guy, paid sub minimum wages, stiffed the working guy, and is an expert at manipulating the system to his advantage at the expense of society. And, he is the hero of the working class, the little guy, the guy he has screwed unrelentingly all his life. Wow, and there are actually people on this blog who complain of being labelled as not that intelligent. They just elected the fox to administer the hen house.

    Everyone of Trump’s threats over the past months will result in the American economy getting worse, the debt growing, and the middle class slipping further away. Health care insurance costs were slowly subsiding, not any more. Americans were experiencing their base pay level rising, not any more. Americans were having addressed the inequities of pay between men and women, not any more.

    The dollar is rising against the currencies of the countries from which Americans receive all their cheap stuff. This puts the death knell to any dreams of rebuilding the middle class manufacturing infrastructure. A tremendous opportunity to generate the economy based on alternative energy will be further eroded. The American economy was fast eroding when the tech revolution revived it; could and should happen with the energy revolution but not in the US. Coal workers in Appalachia have been asking for retraining in the energy revolution industries; Trump has promised to get them back digging coal which costs more to obtain that the cheaper natural gas-promoted and developed under Obama. Oh wait, Obama has done nothing but bad things.

    Obama has successfully laid the foundation for the recovery from the last disaster, caused primarily by the Bush administration and the Republicans. The root cause of the last recession was the unfettered access to the same financing formulas used both successfully and unsuccessfully by Trump for decades. But Obama didn’t do it fast enough. Clinton would have continued fine tuning the advances to increase and solidify the gains. So, let’s invite this buffoon into rule our lives with absolutely no check and balance in place. The mob wanted to express itself. Let’s hope Trump proves all those smug, college educated, informed people who pay attention to details, wrong. Bush proved them right. Reagan proved them right. Now we have a carnival barker who deals in illusions, gold paint, and failed enterprises for the idiot masses who gamble away their earnings chasing dreams but does exceptionally well providing for the ultra rich.

    After the Bush administration disaster, most Americans continued to blame the other side but it was apparent to the majority that rash decisions, ill thought out, and poorly executed caused the unnecessary war in Iraq, the real estate bubble and its subsequent explosion, as well as global embarrassment. Obama came in and with nothing but obstruction from the Republicans who held the country hostage for the sake of power and power only, convinced Americans that this multi faceted mess needed to be dealt with item by item. And, it was working but not fast enough. Destroying something always takes less time that rebuilding. So, as the first assassin said, as he ventured out to slay Banquo, ‘Let it Come Down.’

    1. issac – I would say that David Brock and George Soros are still at work. They are the masters of rent-a-mob.

      1. I would disagree. Think the students are highly motivated. Saw there has even been walkouts at high schools.

        1. Kate – they were motivated by MoveOn.org, a Soros funded organization. Soros is going to make this a fun 4 years.

          1. Depends on how hateful Trump is and not Soros. Now that you brought up Soros could you next claim the students are followers of Alinsky.

            1. Kate – Soros has dropped a ton of money into this campaign and campaigns around the country. We know from Wikileaks that Hillary is into rent-a-mob. I am not sure where the kids are but I am sure their teachers donated heavily to Hillary and would be happy to take them on a field trip. Some, of course, are followers of Alinsky. As a former teacher I used to have several of these is every school I taught at and they tried to indoctrinate the students.

                1. edm – I did my best to deprogram them. There were many hurt feelings with other faculty members.

                  1. Oh, I’m sure. You were the shining star! The other teachers were all indoctrinators. That seems unlikely after reading many of your comments on this blog.

                    1. edm – given the right class I would have indoctrinated them, however I generally taught humanities. So, only when something came up would I talk about it.

          1. tnash – what amazed me was they only got 500 Berkeley students to join them. Are they on the quarter system there?

            2. okay, and so how do we recognize when it tips more toward complete contempt for democracy…?

        4. I would defend the rights of the protesters to burn the flag (although I think they are a bit misguided). But I’m not so sure it takes a lot of courage to burn a flag in the middle of a city that was a Clinton stronghold. I suggest they relocate their protest to Cambria County, PA; the birthplace of Charles Bronson and a county that voted Trump by a two-to-one margin. They might return home with their horizons broadened.

      2. Paul

        The key word here is ‘students’. These are young, thinking, emotional people that will probably go on to be that disgusting elite that those without anything but a gripe deplore. These are the desired future of America, not the viewers of Duck Dynasty or Honey Boo Boo. When Trump has finished with his wrecking crew perhaps America will elect another intelligent President. Until then it’s nothing more than another self serving self gratification by The Donald. As you have probably noticed I have not evolved into having a sense of humor as yet. There has never been a potentially more dangerous move made by Americans than this one. The hypocrisy alone is overwhelming. The sacred check and balance system touted by all the downtrodden Republicans as they held America hostage for power over the past 6+years is now forgotten as every deplorable schmuck like Christie and Gingridge slithers out of from under their rocks and installs themselves at the helms of our government. If Cheney was brought back I wouldn’t be surprised.

        1. issac – don’t look for Cheney, he voted for Hillary. The Donald keeps a list. Barack keeps a list. Fair is fair. I understand Xanax is helpful in these situations.

    2. Really Isaac? “There was no substance, nothing intelligent, and next to no understanding of the realities of America’s problems”

      Did you ever even watch a single Trump rally? I suspect you did not – none of my devoted (delusional) Hilbot friends did either. The people have spoken: we did not choose Obama 2.0 Thank you Julian Assange!!

      1. Autumn,
        There is no reasoning with Issac. He has demonstrated time and again a worldview that rejects our founding principles. His views are consistent with the progressive movement.

        1. Olly, Isaac is a liberal. NOT Progressive – many Berniebots voted for Trump to keep HRC out of the WH!! =)

          1. I tell you what Autumn, instead of picking the fly$hit out of the pepper, (either works), what he clearly is not is a limited-government constitutionalist.

        1. So I’m wondering – with the voting this close – why was there not a single request for a recount by the Clinton campaign in any of the too-close-to-call states? Gotta wonder….

        2. Kate – Clinton won the popular vote because she won CA by over 60%. All the votes are not counted yet.

        3. Good for her. She and her followers should be proud of that accomplishment. However, to use a football analogy; her team racked up the most total yards, dominated the time of possession, but was a failure in the red zone. One could easily argue it was the penalty yards that really did them in.

        4. You are probably too young to know this, but in 1960, Richard Nixon won more popular votes than John F. Kennedy. Kennedy went on to be president. Blame the electoral college. It was created when people didn’t get news for weeks and many were illiterate. It is archaic and needs to be eliminated. Personally, I think we would be better off with it gone but here we are 56 years after Kennedy, and it still exists. Maybe work on that, if you are unhappy with Trump.

          2. beakie48,

            Some of here remember that election well. I remember how close that election was…and the question about voting irregularities in Texas and Illinois. I don’t have much respect for Nixon–but I give him a lot of credit for not contesting the election.

            *****
            The drama behind President Kennedy’s 1960 election win
            http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2016/11/the-drama-behind-president-kennedys-1960-election-win/

            …So arguments persist to this day about vote-counting in two states, specifically Illinois (where Kennedy won by 9,000 votes) and Texas (where Kennedy won by 46,000 votes). If Nixon had won those two states, he would have defeated Kennedy by two votes in the Electoral College.

            That fact wasn’t lost on Nixon’s supporters, who urged the candidate to contest the results. At the time, Kennedy was also leading in the critical state of California, which was Nixon’s home state. But a count of absentee ballots gave Nixon the state several weeks later, after he conceded it to Kennedy.

            In Illinois, there were rampant rumors that Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley used his political machine to stuff the ballot box in Cook County. Democrats charged the GOP with similar tactics in southern Illinois. Down in Texas, there were similar claims about the influence of Kennedy’s running mate, Lyndon B. Johnson, over that state’s election.

            On Wednesday afternoon, November 9, 1960, Nixon officially conceded the election to Kennedy. He told his friend, journalist Earl Mazo, that “our country cannot afford the agony of a constitutional crisis.” (Mazo had written a series of articles about voter fraud after the 1960 election, which he stopped at Nixon’s request.)

          3. “Some of here remember that election well.”

            That should have read: Some of us here remember that election well.

    3. isaac,

      Don’t go trying to upset the Trump apologists here. They love Mr. Birther. So what if he’s a racist, a bigot, a misogynist who assaults women…who disrespected our current president because he’s Black. He’s their boy. He says what they like to hear.

    5. It’s not Trump’s fault the Democrats subverted democracy to run the most corrupt, unlikeable, untrustworthy candidate with 30 years of unsavory baggage. Trump won. Elections have consequences. Suck it up and cope.

          1. I don’t know that is verifiably correct at this point? I said this elsewhere and will repeat it here….with the voting this close in so many states/precincts, do you have any ideas on why the Clinton camp would not request a recount in a single one? I find that curious….

            1. It’s almost like they have more reasons to NOT want more scrutiny of some precincts….? therefore no calls for recounts…? in an election this close, it just doesn’t add up….

            2. Lee,
              I was wondering the same thing.
              It’s likely that the Clinton camp considered challenging the results in some states….Trump’s margins of victory were razor-thin in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
              Be interesting to know what discussions took place in the Clinton camp relating to possible challenges.
              My guess is that poured over the results, and decided that a recount would not change the results.

              2. tnash – my thinking is that they and the press made such a big deal about Trump possibly challenging the results, really put her in a position where she couldn’t. She would be a hypocrite, besides everything else she is. 😉

            3. Lee,

              Clinton didn’t claim that she thought the election was rigged, did she? Did she or her campaign claim that there were voting irregularities in any states/precincts that would have changed the outcomes in those places? I can only imagine if the roles were reversed and Trump won the popular vote but didn’t get enough electoral votes. He and his minions would be whining and crying at the top of their voices that the election was fixed.

                    1. tnash,

                      Nice try! I am not one of Hillary’s minions. I was a Bernie supporter…and you know it. But then, some folks choose to claim they know who other posters on this blog are and what they think.

                2. I agree with you. Hillary did the classy thing and just conceded. As far as not conceding in person on election night, at the Javits place, I don’t hold that against her either. Even if she is a vicious shrew, she is also still just a 70 year old little old lady with obvious health problems. And the loss did come out of left field (or would this be “right” field???) and gobsmacked her. As a general rule, I don’t go around picking on old sick people.

                  But this is also why I don’t think she was really healthy enough to be President.

                  Squeeky Fromm
                  Girl Reporter

            4. I think the closest state is Michigan with a 12000 vote lead for Trump.Why would she pay for a costly and long recount?

              2. SM Mom-
                A 12,000 vote margin out of the nearly 5,000,000 total Michigan votes is a very tiny margin.
                I think John Kerry was considering a challenge to the Ohio vote in 2004….I think he lost by c.100,000 votes in Ohio.
                “Flipping” the results in Ohio would have put Kerry over the (270) top, although he lost the popular vote by nationally by about 2,500,000 votes.

                1. I rechecked the 2004 numbers….Bush won Ohio by 118,775 votes, out of 5.9 million votes cast.

                  If Kerry was seriously considering a challenge with those numbers, then a possible challenge to the Michigan results must have been considered by Clinton.

                2. She needs to fiip three states where the margins are tight – WI MI PA. so probably not worth the money or the misery. She conceded and ii is over.

                    1. Depends on the state…it 2,000 in Michigan for an automatic recoint, but a candidate can petion for a recount if the 2,000 vote aitomatic recount isn’t triggeted.

                  2. Trump is still at 279 ( last time I checked…I,may need to update.If he lost any of these states, he falls short of 270.

                    But you’re right that Clinton needed 42 more electoal votes, so reversing the results in Michigan and PA. doesn’t get her there.
                    Seems like there are still about 35 electoral votes out there….Trump’s 279 and Clinton’s 228 don’t add up to the 539 total EC votes.

                    2. I FINALLY was able to find an updated electoral college vote.
                      Tried 8-10 times over the past c
                      36 hours.Don’t know where the “straggling” E.C. votes came from, or why it took so long to account for those “missing” 32 EC votes.
                      I think Trump finished with 302 EC votes, up from the 279 previously reported.Clinton’s camp probably had a pretty good idea that they’d have to flip at least 3 states,as Swarthmore mom pointed out.
                      That clarifies their reasonong in not asking for recounts.

            1. If the ground rules were different, and the popular vote determined the outcome,there is an assumption that the popular vote would have turned out the same, with a c.240,000? vote lead for Hillary.
              But the campaigns would both have very different focuses and strategies if they were operating under the “popular vote scenario”.
              Nobody really knows how different the popular vote outcome would be, or who it would favor.
              But the numbers would almost certainly be different; you’d see Trump throwing more resourses in states like California and New York, and Hillary doing the same in Texas and the deep South.

          3. Perhaps next time they will remind their constituents that this is not a democracy but a republic. That might soften the blow.

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