What is the rationale for accepting defeat because everyone is insisting that we have been defeated? The popular vote winner is Hilary Clinton, not was, is. The Electoral College, the U.S. Constitutional backstop, is not scheduled to vote until December 19, 2016. This does not have to be a “coronation”. The electors are technically and politically free agents who can and should (and if you read what Madison wrote) should assess the qualifications of those who are candidates or quite possibly some one else, on their own. The electors vote in secret so even if they are from a state that compels an elector to vote in a specific way, it is possible for even one of those electors to vote his or her conscience, or in my opinion, in the true interest of this democratic republic.

This is what scares me about Trump as “President-elect”: the media gave him that title. The pundit class either fell in line or fell apart. Trump’s press availability has him holding up his youngest son like a young prince, dressed in the modern trappings of royal robes, a cut down business suit for a child. I was readying myself to watch the 60 Minutes interview until I notice that everyone was sitting (including Leslie Stahl) on gold gild chairs!

We do not have to go gently into what will not be a good night. We can insist on pointing out the obvious: the Emperor and his self-designated subjects have no clothes and no sense.