With U.S. election coming to a close, the world is still reeling from the consequences – none more than the U.S. itself. While world leaders continue to learn how to cope with president-elect trump, protests, and even violence, has broken out in many American cities. Within days of the election, rioters attacked the police with rocks in Portland, Oregon and vandalized public and private properties. Further protests are expected in many of America’s major cities, including New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and Nashville, Tennessee. Even in some small towns, such as Iowa City, protests are either planned or have occurred. Such widespread opposition against the president-elect so soon after a general election is perhaps unprecedented in recent American history. Many people certainly feel angry at the results of the election, but demands for Trump’s resignation or some form of preventing him from succeeding Obama as the 45^th president of the U.S. is unwarranted.

Trump’s proposed policies are alarming, and his rhetoric is anti-liberal and un-democratic. The protests in the aftermath of the election are just as much a cause for concern. Despite the close result of the election and Trump losing the popular vote, Donald Trump was elected according to the U.S. constitution and so far there has not been evidence of foul play. To revoke Trump’s status as president-elect without evidence of wrongdoing would itself be a violation of the democratic spirit and the rule of law, which is fundamental to the functioning of any democracy. Where Trump represented one brand of radical populism, after-election anti-Trump protests represents anti-democratic attitudes of another sort. To presume that, because Trump’s proposals are anti-liberal, he should be removed without proof of wrongdoing is not only hubris. If it occurred would completely destroy any credibility of American democracy.

Trump’s camp is  not making the matter any better. In response to the protests, Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway denounced protesters as paid professionals, without showing any proof. Donald Trump himself has taken to his twitter account to back up Conway’s claims. The resort to finger-pointing to some showy conspiracy and painting Trump as the victim has been the hallmark of Trump’s campaign. Such mutual denunciation by supporters of each camp will only inflame tensions and make reasonable politics more difficult in the future. What the United States needs is a stable and cool-headed government that can tackle America’s deeply embedded problems. Most prominently these issues concern its racial and wealth divide, as well as its economy. However, instead of this, the American political arena has devolved into giant megalomaniac egos. The electorate refusing to abide their own constitution, shadow-boxing and forming paranoia against fuzzy and invisible threats, all while violating American values which they champion.