Although politics leaves a bad taste in the mouths of many Americans on both sides of the aisle, it is impossible to see the pending inauguration boycott by Democrats as anything but sour grapes.

More than 50 Democrat lawmakers have pledged to skip Friday’s inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump, yet another example of immaturity and partisanship that makes Washington’s Capitol Street look more like Sesame Street.

This shouldn’t be about Democrats or Republicans. It is about showing respect for the position of the President of the United States and the democracy that our country was built on.

The system is far from perfect, but it has served our great nation well for more than 240 years. Elected leaders should be ashamed for boycotting simply because they didn’t like the outcome.

The American people spoke and it is time that our politicians listen.

Much of the Democrats’ paper-thin argument is tied to the fact that Rep. John Lewis and others are declaring Trump an illegitimate president because of allegations that the Russians influenced or interfered with the November 2016 election.

What about the concept of “innocent until proven guilty?” And in this case, Trump hasn’t even been charged with a crime!

All we know is that the Russians attempted to influence the election. To what degree and how much of an actual impact is impossible to determine at this time, and likely ever.

So far, we have seen no evidence that Trump was tied to those efforts.

Every election since George Washington’s has had some level of outside influence, and this is not the first time that a foreign nation has taken some steps to impact the results.

The bottom line is that Trump was elected by our democratic process and, until someone can prove his campaign did anything illegal or duplicitous, he deserves the opportunity to lead our country.

Now more than ever, our nation needs unity. We need to recapture the spirit of compromise and common ground.

Anything less will just be hard for our citizens to stomach.