I’ve been watching the AP Exchange this morning —  the behind-the-scenes site where news organizations pick up Associated Press stories for republication. It’s been nothing but grim there on this first day following Donald Trump’s inauguration. The world is “jittery,” says AP, virtually without exception around the globe. Women are protesting today in Washington. And in Prague. And in Copenhagen. And in Stockholm. …

Trump has been in office less than a day and already everyone hates him, right? Wrong.

Democracy comes in many flavors. One of them is the protest gathering. Protest can be a legitimate form of civil expression, if indeed it remains civil. But to really measure the mood of the people, it’s hard to beat an old-fashioned election.

Protest can be a legitimate form of civil expression, but to really measure the mood of the people, it’s hard to beat an old-fashioned election.

Trump won in November. Why? Because enough people in enough states chose him over his challengers. Sure, he did better among men, but he still couldn’t have won without substantial numbers of women voting for him, including 53 percent of white women.

Likewise the global scene is more diverse than some news reports might lead you to believe. I surveyed major news sources from several countries this morning, and found only a minority of them raising cries of alarm.

Negativity’s Noisiness

But the media’s negativity is to be expected. It isn’t just that they have a bias against Trump, though of course they do; it’s also that just as anger is noisier than love, so also complaints naturally run louder than words of appreciation.

Social researchers are well aware of “negativity bias” in surveys. Ask a group of people to fill check boxes to express their opinions and you’ll probably get a balanced response that represents the mood of the whole group. Ask them to write open-ended comments, though, and you’ll hear a flood of negativity.

Elections may be quiet — but they’re effective.

But you knew this already anyway. When are you most likely to speak up, to contact a store manager, for example? Once in a restaurant I asked our server to bring his manager to the table. He blanched in fear; I let him suffer with it. (I suppose that was not entirely kind of me.) Then I asked him to listen as I told his boss how greatly we appreciated his exceptionally good service. He wasn’t expecting that – because he knew how seldom people will register any opinion other than a complaint.

The beauty of elections is that they’re like the check-boxes on those surveys. They may be quiet — but they’re effective. They measure the mood of the people a lot better than either post-election celebrations or protests.

The protests will continue, but don’t let their noise obscure the rest of the news. When the country was asked who we wanted to be president, we chose Donald Trump.