Democrats Refuse to Attend Inauguration

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

I don't recall any Republicans refusing to attend either of Barack Obama's inaugurations for political reasons.  Perhaps there were those who considered it, but it never made the news.  You know as well as I do that if the GOP did boycott Obama's inauguration, the news media would have been going crazy about it. . . even if it was only one Republican who dared to do such a thing.  We would have heard how intolerant the right-wingers are, or how un-American they were.

In 2016, Donald J. Trump won the election, and the Democrats are beside themselves in anger.  So much so that the hypocrites who would never have stood for Republicans boycotting Obama's inauguration have decided that a number of them will boycott Trump's inauguration.  According to reports, about a dozen Democrat Congress Critters have announced their intention to skip Donald Trump’s inauguration as a protest against his plans for the country. While the boycotters make up only a small fraction of the Congress Critters, their decision to protest represents a break with tradition that they say is warranted by Trump’s agenda, which they see as extreme.

While Republicans were not thrilled with Obama's victories in 2008 and 2012, and considered his policies to not only be extreme, but against the Constitution, at no point did they throw temper-tantrums or refuse to follow tradition.  Sure, there are members of Congress that miss inaugurations for a variety of reasons, usually personal reasons, but refusal because they don't like the new guy in the White House is normally not one of those reasons.

What is fascinating is that the hysteria comes from a propaganda campaign that has no evidence behind it, and actually defies logic.  We are told Trump is a racist, though he was never considered such until he ran against Democrats.  He actually has a history of working with civil rights leaders.  The claim by Democrats that he's a racist was born from the fact that they see anyone who disagrees with their stance on illegal immigration as prejudice against immigrants, and anyone who dares to link terrorism with Islam as racist against Muslims.  In both cases the accusation of racism is inaccurate, since both are national security matters since in both cases the incoming populations have mixed in their ranks persons who seek to cause violence against the United States, be they drug cartel members or Islamic terrorists.

The sexist charge is fascinating since, based on his involvement in beauty pageants, and the reality of his position of wealth, Trump has been surrounded by beautiful women his whole life, yet any accusations of sexism didn't appear until he dared to run against Hillary Clinton.

In other words, the accusations of racism, sexism, and pretty much anything else the liberal left has thrown at him, are without a doubt patently false.  It has been a propaganda campaign of misinformation and misdirection.  Either the Democrats throwing a hysteria fit believe their own bullcrap, or they are fantastic actors.

The reality is, if Republicans had made the kind of statements Democrats are now making about Trump back in 2008 or 2012 regarding Obama, the media would have been all over it, and the GOP would have been demonized for not giving the incoming President the benefit of the doubt.

In short, the boycott by a number of Democrats of the Trump inauguration less than a week from now is unacceptable. . . mainly because they would not have tolerated the same by their opponents if the shoe was on the other foot.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary