Not My President
In the immediate aftermath of Trump's election for president a vocal protest erupted. Hundreds of thousands of people have by now hit the streets to protest. Trump dismissed those demonstrators in a tweet as Professional Protesters. His instinctive response shows a complete detachment from reality, worse, a lack of ability to take responsibility and ownership of the reason for these protests.
Let me be clear upfront, I detest and condemn in the strongest way those who have used this occasion to vandalize and strike out in violence on the streets of Portland and Chicago. The vast majority of protesters are peaceful law abiding citizens. Violence is the very anti-thesis of the thing the protests are in defense off, which is unity, and protection of civil-rights & democracy. This behavior is contradictory to the core goal. Clearly these hooligans are just using this as an excuse for violence, not Democrats who are shaken by the elections. It would be interesting to find out if any of them are paid provocateurs designed to provide the pretext for marshal law to be imposed in the first days of the Trump administration, by inflaming mutual aggression and chaos.
Now as far as the protests are concerned, it is impossible to orchestrate such large scale demonstrations in any central manner, and whoever has been involved in any protest movement knows quite well how hard it is to assemble individuals for any cause, even for a fraction of the size. Such demonstrations, if not spontaneous, require weeks and months of preparations and a wide coalition of organizations to coordinate and orchestrate it. The only exception to this is by totalitarian regimes that have an unlimited resource to hoist such a display of support at a moment's notice.
Needless to say, some of the claims that rich sponsors have paid protesters to do so are utterly laughable. All you have to do is calculate the enormous price tag for that and the payroll system that would need to be implemented if it was to be done covertly. You could hire a company to bring extras on, as Trump has done at the beginning of his campaign, but not at this scale.
These protests have drawn criticism by many on the right as being divisive and undemocratic, because they are protesting the fair and square election of a president. The claim is people should give Trump a chance to act before criticism is applied. The critiques fail to understand that the protests are in response to the cumulative rhetoric Trump has spewed over the last year, not as a response to what he is doing, as he has not done anything yet.
Trump, as opposed to his rival has made divisiveness, and attack against all kinds of minorities, the cornerstone of his campaign, and it is his responsibility to make amends towards these frightened and freaked out populations, whose very safety and well-being is now shaken. So far, aside from a very vague "Let's heal the wounds" call, he has not done anything towards that end.
It is an utterly insensitive position to say "give the man a chance". It can only be the position of someone who does not feel threatened by the attitudes and positions Trump has presented so far. It is like saying to protesters of Mussolini, "wait, don't be unfair, let him work first!". You cannot ignore the fact that the man has boldly made his position clear up to this moment. Why would anyone work from the assumption that he would make a 180 degree turn now that he is in power, and embrace all the people he has attacked earlier.
The fact that Trump has put Mike Pence as his VP and chair of his transition team, a man who has the best creds in Congress in hate towards Gay people, is enough evidence he is not looking to change his lack of care towards the gay community. His consideration of Sarah Palin for the secretary of Interior affairs, a woman that has voiced her opinion that the EPA should be disbanded, is evidence enough that he is uninterested in protecting the environment. His consideration of the guy behind BreitBart Communications is enough of a hint that he is fine with people in the White Supremacy movement at the expense of minorities.
The onus of distancing himself from the things he said and implied up to now, sits squarely on Trump's shoulders. People are protesting those intentions, and they have the right to do so, as well as the right not to see Trump as their president based solely on the intentions he has put out. It is not their responsibility to take a leap of faith and assume he would be a changed man from now on, especially since he has not made any attempt at all to assure them this was just campaign rhetoric, and not his blueprint. Someone that runs on hate and divisiveness clearly takes on this responsibility on himself when applying for a job that requires representation of all Americans, not just those who voted for him.