If you were in Congress would you boycott the inauguration?

[Coolface Sock #42069]

No, I wouldn't want to invite a primary challenge.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

No, but I'd totally understand my colleagues who had.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

No.  Whatever our personal beliefs about Trump are (and believe me, I'm no fan), he was duly and fairly elected, and he is now our president whether we like it or not.  At some point, you need to put politics aside and just wish the new president luck.

[Virginiá]

No.  Whatever our personal beliefs about Trump are (and believe me, I'm no fan), he was duly and fairly elected, and he is now our president whether we like it or not.  At some point, you need to put politics aside and just wish the new president luck.

That's the thing - a lot of people don't believe he was fairly elected. At least, I don't mean in the sense that votes were changed but that foreign interference and leaks of private data tilted the election towards Trump. Then you have people believing voter suppression laws by Republicans unfairly gave them an advantage, and so on. Finally, you have the fact that he lost the popular vote by 2% or millions of votes and still got into office, just like how Bush first got into office despite losing the popular vote, which is absurd to many people, myself included.*

I'm not making a statement on the validity of those allegations here, but rather that if someone believes one or more of those to be true, it's hard to fault them for abstaining.

*edited

[OneJ]

Yes.

[Kingpoleon]

I'll start by saying that I won't watch it in person - not because I'm *boycotting* it (God, as if Facebook could get any worse...), but rather because I would have a lot more fun doing other things - but if I were in Congress, I would obviously attend, literally no matter who is elected.  The battle starts once they're in office, and there's no worse way to combat someone who you feel will disrespect our democratic institutions ... than by disrespecting our democratic institutions.

I agree with this.

L'homme sur la voie supérieure peut jeter des pierres le plus éloigné.
(The man on the high road can throw stones the farthest. If I haven't butchered it, that is.)