Trump wants respect. Here’s how we should respond.

“Support your president.” You hear that a lot. And: “Now that the election’s over, you must support your president.”

Coincidentally, we hear this from Republicans whenever a Republican is president. They feel no need to support the president when a Democrat is in office. In fact, when that Democrat is Barack Obama, you don’t even need to respect the fact that he’s president at all: You can undermine him by claiming that he wasn’t born in this country and that he’s therefore illegitimate, a nonsensical theory based solely on Obama’s race that the current president-elect not only fully supported, but was the leader of.

And now that that man is going to president — a man who not only received nearly 3 million less votes than his opponent, but got to be president through a campaign filled with hatred, bigotry and lies, enabled by Russian interference (now thoroughly verified by our intelligence agencies); a quirk in our system known as the Electoral College; and unprecedented assistance from the FBI director — we’re supposed to go, “Doesn’t matter — he’s our president now, and we have to forget all that.”

I don’t think so.

{mosads}Not going to happen.

Despite what some may want to believe, this country was built on opposition to power. Sam Adams didn’t say, “Well, I must respect my king, no matter what.” The Sons of Liberty didn’t go, “Let’s not toss that tea into the harbor; the British may take offense.”

When the Founding Fathers saw injustices, they resisted. When Henry David Thoreau saw injustices, he resisted. And when Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we just celebrated, saw injustices, he most certainly resisted, declaring in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

He pushed President Lyndon Johnson to pass the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. In his famed “I Have a Dream” speech, he warned that “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.” Not for one second did he ever think that he should go along to get along or simply sit around and wait.

We don’t know for sure everything that Donald Trump will do as president, but we know enough not to have to “wait and see” as some have suggested: We know that he proposed banning all Muslims from entering the country (and no, not temporarily). We know that he’s a misogynist who once boasted about violating women.

We know that he led the birther movement. We know that he’s tepid, at best, about the No. 1 issue facing this planet: global warming. We know that he’s made many racist and bigoted comments and that he plays fast and loose with the truth on a regular basis.

You’re not supposed to support someone when that person’s stated goals run contrary to any sense of decency.

And so I propose a simple way (though not the only way) to protest against a man who is undermining democracy. I say we do much like Sam Adams would’ve done: Let’s turn our back on Trump whenever he walks into a room, enters a stadium or delivers a speech. Show him the respect that he deserves: none. Show him what you think of his ideas by turning away.

Will it anger him? Might he lash out? Certainly. And that’s the idea. That’s the point of a protest: to cause emotion, to send a message.

Donald Trump has consistently shown that he feels it’s appropriate to insult and demean people. Let’s see how he feels when it’s done to him. And let’s start with the Inauguration.

Ross Rosenfeld is an educational reformer, historian and political pundit who has written for Newsday, the New York Daily News, Charles Scribner’s, MacMillan, Newsweek.com, Primedia and others. He is a frequent contributor to The Hill.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.