Please, Secretary Clinton and former President Clinton, do not participate in the presidential inauguration, however much you wish cooperate faithfully with the democratic transition for reasons of tradition and protocol. We are in the territory of the unprecedented and unpredictable, and this is an extremely dangerous turning point in our history. I hope that you will be unprecedented and unpredictable in response, that you will support human decency and rule of law by radically breaking with protocol. I see two options:
Notify the inauguration authorities that you will not be attending and release no public statement. Let people guess, endure the predictable criticism.
Make a public statement that you will not be attending and explain that your reasons are not because your team did not win this time, not because of PEOTUS's integrity, fitness for office, sanity, emotional maturity or other character issues, but because Republican leadership is dangerously abdicating its responsibility to vet their presidential candidate and electoral vote winner properly and uphold the rule of law.
Because of the:
- Impeachable offenses and disqualifying conflicts of interest already in plain view and currently being swept under the rug before he even takes office.
- Failure to properly vet cabinet appointments and attempts to fast-track confirmations of individuals with obvious conflicts of interest and incompatibilities with their offices.
- Failure to challenge nepotism and profiteering on the part of PEOTUS and his family.
- Failure to seriously weigh concerns of pernicious foreign influence on U.S. elections and future policy.
- Unprecedented waiving of requirements for routine disclosures about taxes, business entanglements, and domestic and foreign creditors.
- Potential for a gangster and/or lunatic to take office, which our system is ostensibly designed to prevent, and Republicans' acquiescence to gain anti-democratic partisan advantage for sweeping and unpopular reforms.
- Overwhelming irregularity of this entire election and transition and what it bodes for the country.
- Take your pick. Compose your own.
The press and your opponents cannot say anything worse about you than they already have. You, in fact, have no opponents because you are retired from politics and free to exercise influence unconventionally and to follow your conscience. The country is veering into uncharted, ominous territory; there is a qualitative difference between this and previous transitions, and therefore no middle ground. Do not allow this "transition" to be a bureaucratic transaction that enables a tyrant. You must say something on the subject through your actions or through your statements. From my point of view, you have nothing to lose by breaking with precedent and steadfastly refusing to normalize this crude taking of power. This is not a democratic transition, and anyone who aspires to fight for the future of this country must recognize this. Make Republicans take full responsibility for this incoming president, his ilk and their predictable damage to American life.
Please "go rogue" and stay home on January 20. Do not play a supporting role in this farce.