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On the eve of the inauguration, some lawmakers are making headlines for their decision boycott the inauguration ceremony entirely as an act of protest. Not for them, standing in the cold being showered with the glorious stylings of 3 Doors Down while a man the shade of orange last seen on a Florida juice carton becomes president. They're staying home or doing other things. They want no part of it. And the decision is prompting a lot of discussion, not only from the notoriously thin-skinned President-elect Donald Trump but from other commentators who wonder if it's better to just sit through the event in silence and do the real fights on the floor of the House and the Senate.
On the contrary, boycotting matters. While it may be in the nation's interest (or at least in the service of its morbid curiosity) to turn on the television and watch the next signs of the apocalypse, complete with Rockettes, the inauguration boycott of concerned politicians represents both a long history of inauguration-related dissent and a message about the state of Trump's power.
While the rest of us might join the Women's March on Washington (which will be attended by various politicians who've given up their seats on the stands out of outrage) or looking through the newly-released Resistance Manual, the boycotting politicos are doing important symbolic work of their own. Here's why.