It’s up to people to accept or reject election results — not the politicians

There was a statement in the third presidential debate about the tradition in this nation regarding the orderly transition of power. This was followed up with a question whether the candidates would accept results of the coming election.

{mosads}Let us first address the assertion that there is ever a transition of power in our government. I take umbrage with the statement.

The power of this nation is with the people. Not with a political party; not with any politician; certainly not with any news reporters. To say otherwise is nothing short of portraying this country as an extension of the party rule in Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Stalin’s Communist Soviet Union, Mussolini’s Fascist Italy.

Next, given that the country belongs to the people, it is not for any candidate, any party, any politician and certainly not any “news reporter” or network to “accept” the results of any election. It is up to the people to approve the results of an election. It is their government.

When the people find it intolerable that the government no longer represents them or the government is not acting in their best interest, when the people no longer accepts the results of an election, the people will take matters into their own hands.

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This has happened in America. In 1775, a group of people confronted soldiers of the greatest power in the world of the time, when an outnumbered group of people stood their ground at a small bridge on the road to Lexington and Concord from Boston. Not the political party; not the politicians; and I doubt if any news reporters were there. But the people intercepted a force of British soldiers on their way to seize the people’s arms in Concord.

We learned in school that the call went out, “To Arms, to Arms, the British are coming.” The call was not “To Party, To Party, the British are coming.” The call was not “To Politician, To Politician, the British are coming.”

It was the Minutemen who answered the call. The people, the average common person, made up this small group of Minutemen. It was these people who froze at Valley Forge, again, not the party, not the politician, not the news reporters. These people fought for their freedom, our freedom.

Our Constitution reminds us in the very first words that “We the People of the United States” have a forged a nation “of the people, by the people, and for the people” as affirmed by Abraham Lincoln. Not of the party, by the party and for the party. Not of the politicians, by the politicians and for the politicians. Not of the news media, by the news media and for the news media.

This is a government “of the People, by the People and for the People” as “consecrated” on soil and waters world wide soaked with the blood of our veterans. Let us never again tolerate anyone casting impertinence on “We the People of the United States” by saying or even insinuating otherwise. It is for “We the People of the United States” to accept the results of the election.

DeMaggio is a retired Special Agent in Charge and retired Captain in the U.S. Navy. He is also the author of “I Pledge Allegiance,” available on Google Books. The above is the opinion of the author and is not meant to reflect the opinion of the U.S. Navy or the U.S. Government.

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