Those protesters marching around with signs saying “Not my president”? They’re right, but not for the reasons they think. Donald Trump isn’t my president. He’s not your president either.

That’s not the way our system works. I’ll tell you what he is at the end. But first a brief reminder of the kind of government our Constitution gave us.

The Constitutional Arrangement

The first three articles of the Constitution set up the three branches of the federal government. It created what we sometimes call “the separation of powers” and “the system of checks and balances.” Each branch has a different job to do and each helps keep the other from doing too much. Each makes sure that, as my grandmother might have put it, the others don’t get too big for their britches.

Article I of the Constitution describes the legislative part of the government — first because the founding fathers thought it the primary one — and Article III describes the judicial. Article II describes the executive part.

The president’s not a ruler. He’s not someone with whom we have a personal relationship, like the English do with their queen, or like Catholics do with their pope. He’s not a father either.

That Article begins, “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” After going through some technical matters, like how the president’s elected, it lays out his responsibilities. These include being commander-in-chief of the military and — in cooperation with the Senate — making treaties and appointing Supreme Court justices.

As the Article says, the presidency is the executive part of the federal government. “Executive” doesn’t mean someone high up in the organization, like an executive in a business. It means the man who executes things, who makes sure things get done. And what he gets done is what Congress tells him to get done. Congress passes the legislation the president puts into effect.

So: The president? He’s a guy with a job. He’s one part of a three-part system and according to our Constitution not the most important part. He works for us.

Most important, he’s not a ruler. He’s not someone with whom we have a personal relationship, like the English do with their queen, or like Catholics do with their pope. He’s not a father either. The president’s a guy with a job to do for us in cooperation with two other groups of people who also work for us.

So Who Is He?

So who is he then? Here’s the answer I promised at the beginning. He’s not my president. Not your’s. He’s the president.

You can call him “my president” if you want, but I think that unwise. Use “the,” because it expresses much better what he really is in our Constitutional system. “The” makes clear exactly what he is, and on this we need clarity. Avoid the word (“my”) that implies he’s more than he is.

Because the president’s one person we can all focus on, we tend to make much more of him than we should. We tend to look at him as a father, and love him or hate him. We should look at him as skeptical stockholders look at the CEO. No one says “my CEO.”

We should look at the president as skeptical stockholders look at the CEO. No one says “my CEO.”

But do what you want. I started this in response to the protester-rioters and their “Not my president” signs. I’d tell them: Donald Trump’s not your president. You’re absolutely right. He’s not my president either. Wave your signs if you want, but that’s not the point.

Donald Trump will be the legally elected president of the United States. He’s the man who will hold the office our Constitution describes. He’s the man who will have that authority and power. That’s the fact. How you and I feel about him doesn’t matter in the least.

Forgive me if I’ve misread you, but I don’t think I have, but what you really mean is: “I don’t have to obey the system because it didn’t work the way I wanted it to.” You’re saying the whole Constitutional system doesn’t bind you because it produced President Trump. No. As an American citizen, it’s the system you’ve got. The Constitution gives us the rules we all play by.

The Constitution Lets You Keep Playing

And look: You accepted those rules yourselves, when you thought Clinton would win. Rioting now is just sore losing. If you were real revolutionaries, that would different. But few of you are. You’re voters whose candidate lost to someone you really dislike.

The Constitutional system doesn’t guarantee you’ll always win. But it does let you keep playing when you lose. So put down the signs, and stop blocking traffic and breaking other people’s windows, and setting other people’s things on fire, and get to work. The Constitution gives you lots of ways to fight President Trump, and they’ll all be more effective than annoying everyone else in the country by throwing a violent, pointless hissyfit.

And in four years you can try to vote Trump out of office. That’s just one of the cool things about the Constitution you’re rejecting.

Follow David on Twitter at @DavidMillsWrtng.

This has been revised since publication, mostly by taking out technical details about the president’s duties.