By the time you read this, we will have woken up knowing who’ll be the next U.S. president.

Are we happy with the outcome, or angry?

We are allowed our feelings and, perhaps, even to express them — unless, of course, we didn’t participate in the democratic process called voting.

If you didn’t vote, then the only thing your fellow citizens might put up with is complaints about how miserable the field was, from before the primaries to Election Day. Otherwise, if you didn’t vote at all, then you can’t whine about how your candidate lost.

You can’t celebrate your candidate winning, either. You didn’t vote; he or she is not “your” candidate.

Voting is both a right and responsibility. We have the right to vote, something not everyone in the world has; it is for that very reason that it is also a great responsibility.

Think about this: Even if most eligible voters didn’t go to the polls, there would still be an election. Someone would still end up president, a member of congress, mayor or school board member. Truly, then, a minority would have picked our leaders. That’s not how democracy is supposed to work.

Worse, what if, literally, every voter stayed home? Would there be anarchy? Would the previous president stay in office? We don’t know because it’s never happened and, hopefully, never will, but I shudder at the thought.

In the meantime, if you did vote, then good for you. Go complain — or celebrate — all you want.