Even before Donald Trump is inaugurated, resistance movements are organizing protests and efforts to ensure the new president's failure. We understand the sentiment; after all, it's what many Republicans did to Barack Obama.

This newspaper opposed Trump from the beginning. We have yet to see anything to change our belief that he is misguided. But far more abhorrent is the notion that he doesn't even deserve a chance to succeed. Americans, regardless of ideology, must enter the Trump era with minds open to the possibility that he could actually foment positive change.

Opponents should not decide in knee-jerk fashion that anything with the Trump stamp is automatically wrong. Measure the new administration by its results, not just its abrasive words.

Locally, a battle is brewing over whether a celebrated painting by Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham, "The Verdict of the People," should be on loan from the St. Louis Art Museum for the Trump inauguration lunch with congressional leaders.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., chairs the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. He is the first Missourian in that position since Congress assumed responsibility for inaugurations in 1901. His prominence in Friday's ceremonies is giving Missouri a moment to shine on the national stage.

Blunt helped choose the Bingham work, painted in the mid-1850s, as the centerpiece at the lunch. The painting is part of a trilogy on American politics and elections, and depicts a tumultuous era of great political and social strife.

Its place at a key event celebrating the peaceful, democratic transition of American leadership should be seen as a point of pride for all Missourians. But St. Louis-area art historian Ivy Cooper and artist Ilene Berman initiated a petition on Change.org asking the museum to cancel the loan. The petition objects to the use of the painting "and an implicit endorsement of Trump's presidency and his expressed values of hatred, misogyny, racism and xenophobia."

Museum director Brent Benjamin said the museum is honored to participate in the inauguration and noted that the loan does not reflect a political position. A presidential inauguration honors the office and does not endorse or pay tribute to any particular occupant.

Similarly, the Talladega College Marching Tornadoes band is moving forward with plans to participate in Trump's inaugural parade despite pressure from alumni and supporters to cancel. It will be the only historically black college to participate.

School President Billy Hawkins explained the decision, saying, "We feel the inauguration of a new president is not a political event but a civil ceremony celebrating the transfer of power."

Patriots are those who love their country and can celebrate the Constitution, liberty and democracy without endorsing or attacking an officeholder. Symbolic opposition is valuable, but critics should save their firepower for times when the new president's actions truly merit organized protest.

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