Lift Every Voice and Sing,

‘Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

The dictionary defines harmony as two or more notes blending together to make a pleasant new sound. In a successful democracy, all the noisiness of election contests rarely sounds very pleasant. The sounds of each side saying “I’m right, you’re wrong” just seem to clash. But we’ve had 43 presidents so far without one refusing to leave, and we’ve engaged in long and difficult struggles without completely tearing the country apart. I think we have to count even the political nonsense as the sound of free people governing themselves.