Quarreling About Trump's Legitimacy Only Serves to Devalue the Institution

Georgia Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon, says he doesn't see President-elect Donald Trump "as a legitimate president" and will not attend Trump's inauguration. It is a mistake. As a newspaper that has misgivings about Trump, we have no misgivings about the importance of elected officials being present at the swearing-in ceremony, which is the way the nation communicates to the world that power can change hands peacefully and that the office is bigger than its occupant.Without a doubt, Trump responded to Lewis' criticism is a decidedly unpresidential, disrespectful and condescending manner. He called Lewis "all talk, talk, talk - no action or results" -- this, for a man who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and nearly lost his life during a beating on the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965.   Continue reading...