Some people think that our most important President was George Washington.  The theory is that Washington could have become a king, but instead he chose to leave office voluntarily resulting in a peaceful transfer of power.  I personally think that John Adams was more important than George Washington.  Washington was getting old and it appears he may have just wanted to retire. He chose John Adams to be the next President, so he was comfortable with the transfer of power.  Washington had no children, so there was really never an option of him choosing a son or daughter to take over.  This is not to criticize Washington; it is just to put his decision in perspective.

But, John Adams did want to continue being President.  Jefferson and Adams were vicious political opponents by the time of the 1800 election.  Adams was bitter about the defeat and he thought Jefferson would be a terrible President.  Yet, Adams voluntarily turned over power to Jefferson.  In doing so, he established the tradition of a peaceful transfer of power, even when the results of the election are disappointing.

In Wisconsin, we have the opposite result.  The Republicans won control of the Assembly and the Senate.  Scott Walker was elected Governor.  Democrats were outraged because they strongly disagreed with the legislation proposed by Republicans.  They have a right to feel that way, and they have a right to voice their opposition.  But, unfortunately, all the Democratic Senators fled the state and the Democratic National Committee organized protests in an attempt to make it impossible for a peaceful transfer of power.  They resorted to extortion in their desperate attempt to regain political power.  The message sent by those Democrats is that elections only matter if they win.

 Unfortunately, the main stream media, including Fox News, does not grasp the significance of this action.  There are always a lot of people who are upset at the results of any election.  There were a lot of conservatives who were horrified when the 2008 election gave huge majorities in both the House and the Senate to Democrats.  They were even more concerned when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States.  Many of them predicted, correctly, that Democrats would abuse this power to pass controversial legislation that would destroy our economy, nationalize health care and promote their radical left-wing agenda. 

In my opinion, we are paying a terrible price, worldwide, for putting Democrats in power.   But, the solution is to win the next election; it is not to disregard our democratic process because we don’t like the results. 

Today, people all over the Middle East are protesting their government.  I am certain that many of them genuinely want freedom and democracy.  I just hope they follow the example of John Adams and not the Wisconsin Democratic Party.  Freedom is not fleedom.

 TDM