Ordinary citizens doing their jobs and minding their business should not have to fear the wrath of Presidents and political parties. Supreme Court Justices, election workers and some guy down the block should not need to go live in hiding or get armed guards.
This is the United States of America and everyone's got the right to protest, well, anything. But nobody -- nobody, Left, Right, Center, oddball or coldly logical -- has the right to initiate mob or individual violence.
John Adams, describing his objective in crafting the Massachusetts Constitution, said it was intended to establish, “a government of laws and not of men.”
Such governments are clumsy, kludgey, awkward things; they move slowly and not always as we would prefer. The justice they manage to mete out is never perfect, and even their best efforts to do minimum harm often fall short. They suck -- and every other system of governance humanity has so far tried has been far worse.
Stop trying to break it. It's bent enough already; it continually goes too far one way or another and, by and by, gets shoved back towards the tolerable mean. All of the alternatives are intolerable.
If fewer of us had slept though our History and Government classes, more of us would already be aware of these basic facts. I hope it's not too late.
Unfortunately, the Internet rewards idiots who "protest" with violence with complete coverage and their moment in the sun.
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