Mongo, much of the protest *is* against the election because we are having one of those horrible elections in which one candidate got the most votes (Clinton) but the other candidate won the election (Trump). Clinton received something like 600000 more votes than Trump.
This happened because when we vote here in the US we are actually voting for state electors who in turn meet (later) to vote for the presidental candidates. In other words, it is our 50 states which actually determine who becomes president. And each state may have different rules about how votes from their state are apportioned to each presidental candidate.
This voting system does not always elect the majority candidate. But our founding fathers created that election system in order to ensure that the US, as a single nation, does not hold too strong a power over its citizens. Here much governing power is granted to the states also.
And so: Some protestors are angry about who won the election. Some protestors are angry about the way our election system "robbed" them of their majority choice. Some protestors are not angry at all but simply want to stand up for what they believe in and against Trump's sexism, racism and hatred.
And, unfortunately, a few protestors are not nice people and might try to stir up some violence just for kicks. Sadly this will gather more attention than it deserves.
I'm sure I should **not** be discussing the current US political situation. If any of the other mods want to edit this topic and delete my comments, that is OK. I only wanted to try to explain a bit. But it seems impossible to explain without veering off into something political. Again, I apologize if these explanations are upsetting anyone.
Borge, the states cannot go against federal laws. So they do not "go rogue". "-)
The point is that our states form a loose federation, not a tight one.