President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to concede power peacefully to President-elect Joe Biden is a malignant attack on democracy and an embarrassing display for our country.

Trump’s suspicions of voter fraud have no bearing anyway. In fact, according to the Associated Press, the Republican and Democratic Parties both said that voting went fine this election, and international observers had no “serious irregularities” to report.

This all halts the expedience of the transition of power from Trump to Biden and his developing administration. In essence, this hurts our country.

Where respectful candidates would be writing their letters of congratulations, Trump is pouting and stomping his feet like he lost a game or something.

Trump already implied before election results were ready that he wouldn’t peacefully concede power, however.

For myself and likely millions of other Americans who were perplexed (but not surprised) about this, we probably wondered the same thing: “What the hell does that even mean?”

There are some serious implications that could come with Trump’s refusal. USA Today reports the race “could be headed for a result decided by the courts or by obscure parts of the law.”

What could happen is still in the dark because this hasn’t happened in recent history.

In any case, it puts the country in tumult and drives a bigger divide between those who voted red and those who voted blue.

There isn’t any kind of law that orders presidential candidates to concede power, but it has become a tradition over the last 100 years.

According to NPR, one of the first recorded cases of concession of power is traced back to 1896 when William Jennings Bryant addressed a “cordial telegram” to William McKinley.

But many candidates and presidents have still shared their congratulations to President-elects in the past. For example, John Adams is said to have given his congratulations to Thomas Jefferson in private, marking a new precedent for presidents to follow since 1801, according to NPR.

For someone to just throw away hundreds of years of peaceful tradition is ridiculous and embarrassing to our country.

Trump lost. That’s the truth.

Instead of handling the loss with dignity, respect and the desire to assist with the peaceful transition of power, which is in the country’s best interest, he couldn’t handle it. He couldn’t handle hearing “you’re fired.”

Trump ignoring the valid results of the election is a clear attack on democracy. Even though America isn’t a total democracy, seeing as presidential candidates are elected by the electoral college, Biden won the popular vote and the electoral college.

That is democracy in action, and Trump has spit in its face.

In the words of John McCain’s concession to Barack Obama, “The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly.”

Logan Raschke is a senior journalism major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or at lrraschke@eiu.