Still waiting for the president-elect to abandon the hurley-burley of the hustings and assume the mantle of statesmanship.

I read that the president-elect has called for jailing and revoking the citizenship of flag-burners.

Will somebody please direct the president-elect to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads as follows:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." [Emphasis added.] The words of the amendment pertain solely to the Congress, but court decisions over the years have made them equally applicable to state and local government.

Burning the flag, while possibly not a presently popular act, is protected speech, and so long as you own the flag you are burning, the law does not have any occasion to interfere. To burn someone else's flag without their permission is an interference with private property with which the law can deal, but only as an interference with property and not as a matter akin to a treasonous form of blasphemy.

How the public reacts to disrespect to our public symbols is a wholly different matter, because private individuals are permitted to form their own opinions and, within the bounds of law, to act upon them. Thus, if some public figure, like an athlete or a movie star, refuses to stand during the national anthem or says things that are politically unpopular, he may jeopardize his popularity and his career, so long as that comes about as a matter of private action and not through operation of law.

The president-elect has become the president-elect by saying outrageous things, making allegations that are largely without a factual foundation and appealing to people's baser instincts in the name of patriotism. Such irresponsible actions threaten to chip away at the rights that protect an individual from abuse by the government in the name of society at large. Such rights are at the foundation of what has made the United States a remarkable nation that, for all its faults, is still the envy of most people in the world. The erosion of these rights puts all of us at risk.

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
H.L. Mencken, A Little Book in C Major

Endorsement of a sort

The Beverly Hillbillies possess more self-respect, dignity and decency than the Clintons, BUT on election day, while I will cast my ballot for Hillary, I will be voting against The Donald, who, as a public figure and a private individual, is an embarrassment to the United States of America.