The primary condition necessary for a people to govern itself is the willingness to lose.
As long as you are willing to allow control of your government to be decided through free and fair elections, as long as you are willing to live by the result even if those opposing you may win, then democracy can survive. But that’s a more fragile compact than we might recognize.
It requires trust that the constitutional system and its institutions are strong enough to protect you and your rights even when you are on the losing end. It requires trust that what you have in common with your fellow citizens outweighs your differences. And unfortunately, trust of both types is wearing thin in these United States of America. Politics has taken on an air of desperation, as if the price of losing has become a price too dangerous to pay.
Look, I believe that Donald Trump is a bad man who will prove a very bad president, and that many who have supported him will one day cringe in shame at having done so. That said, some of the reactions I have witnessed on the left go well beyond a critique of that sort, with words such as “treason” and “Hitler” being bandied about. Those are nuclear terms, terms that imply the need for responses outside the bounds of the electoral and political system, and thus should never be used cavalierly.
Yet I have no doubt whatsoever that the reaction would be worse — much worse — if the roles were reversed. Imagine if Trump had been the one who overcame blatant foreign intervention and who won the popular vote by 2.8 million votes, yet had still lost the presidency? The man would have lost his ever-loving mind, and the protests from the right would have made those of the left seem mild.
Remember, Trump whined for weeks prior to the election that the outcome was being rigged, thus poisoning the minds of his followers against acceptance of potential defeat. Even now, in victory, he claims that the only reason that he lost the popular vote is because because millions of illegal immigrants were allowed to cast ballots. In effect, he remains unwilling to acknowledge the legitimacy of his popular-vote loss even though it is merely symbolic.
In North Carolina, where the GOP governor narrowly lost a re-election battle, things have really gotten weird. Republicans hurriedly called the Legislature into special session to strip the governor’s office of power before turning it over to the Democratic victor, the political equivalent of a retreating army burning down the capital city rather than letting it fall to the enemy.
Republican reaction to Russian intervention into our presidential election is even more troubling. As President Obama noted, those Americans who buy Russia’s denial “genuinely think that the professionals in the CIA, the FBI, our entire intelligence infrastructure — many of whom, by the way, served in previous administrations and who are Republicans — are less trustworthy than the Russians.”
Those same Republicans have also found a new fondness for Vladimir Putin.
Two years ago, according to a YouGov poll, just 9 percent of Republicans approved of Putin, yet in a poll taken earlier this month, that approval number had soared to 37 percent. Two years ago, 51 percent of Republicans strongly disapproved of Putin. That number has plummeted to 14 percent. Just as many Republicans who would otherwise despise Trump have embraced him as a means to defeat their most-hated enemy, they are now embracing Putin, a murderous dictator.
That’s how much they have come to fear losing.
About the Author
