One of the first liberating principles upon which our republic was founded…going back to well before the Declaration of Independence…declared that men could actually govern themselves. That revolutionary idea, derived from the thinking of philosophers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and others, was based on the social contract concept in which people agree to form a society and abide by its rules to live together peacefully, surrendering some of their freedoms in exchange for protection of their remaining rights and maintenance of social order.
In a democratic republic such as ours, how we react to the results of election for our leaders is one of the most obvious manifestations of how well our social contract is functioning. If and when election results generate dissatisfaction, the governmental institutions provide an appropriate means for the electorate to change the outcomes in future elections. In the meantime, however, the electorate at large – having agreed to govern themselves – would ideally conduct themselves in accordance with generally-accepted norms.
Sadly, in the aftermath of the just-concluded 2024 presidential election (in which the winning party won both the popular and electoral majorities), some disappointed parties are already vociferously calling for active and lawless resistance to the leaders just elected and their policies. By doing so, they are deliberately attempting to cripple good governance, undermining their social contract responsibilities.
In a more practical, ironic sense, by advocating resistance, the disgruntled repeat the foolish open warfare policies employed by them against the first Trump Administration which lead to their recent ignominious electoral defeat.
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