How to Handle Losing an Election
After eight years of being evicted from the White House, several of them spent in the wilderness of legislative minority status under an opposition President, some Democrats may be quick to start dancing on the graves of the current GOP and licking their chops at the prospect of taking revenge on their former tormentors. I would caution you against such actions. Frankly, the behavior of some of the more liberal Democratic supporters during their time in the minority was highly disappointing. The best advice I could offer would be to remember the complaints you had about the Republicans and the tactics they employed as a single party majority in control of everything, and then make sure that you don’t duplicate that behavior.
And for our Republican friends, I feel your pain. I know that yesterday was likely a bitter pill to swallow. But here is some similar medicine for you to ponder. You complained mightily about the rancor and uncouth behavior of the Democrats when they were screeching from the cheap seats. Before you get swept up in a wave of similar feelings, please take a moment and consider the more hopeful, positive attitude being taken by another Republican… the Lady Logician.
Barack Obama is our President elect. The people have spoken and the world has NOT come to an end. The sun rose and the flag flew and life goes on. Yes we will fight on the issues, but this conservative will not drink the hemlock kool-aid. THIS Conservative will work all the harder to make sure that we do better in 2010 and 2012 and all the while I will NOT stoop to the level of hatred toward President Obama that the progressive movement stooped to with President Bush. There will be no cries of “selected not elected”, no bumper stickers calling for impeachment over any slight, no “Not MY President”, no “Don’t Blame Me I Voted McCain” or “Somewhere in Illinois a village is missing it’s idiot”. None of that. Yes I will argue against issues and ideology, but arguing issues and ideology are NOT THE SAME as the bumper sticker hate that we have seen from the left.
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8 Responses to “How to Handle Losing an Election”
Sorry Jazz, the hate has already started and you can believe that it will be non stop.
I guess us loons on the left had no good reason to not like George Bush. I guess he didn't hire cronies that let New Orleans drown, he didn't invade Iraq over the advice of more moderate Republicans like Powell, he didn't authorize torture or warrantless surveillance of US citizens, he didn't ignore reports about Osama Bin Laden, he didn't add trillions to the national debt, he didn't push deregulation of Wall Street. That's egg on my face. So I guess the only question left is whether Bush is a great president or the greatest president.
The reason there will be no cries of “selected not elected” is because Obama clearly won the election, no hanging chads, Supreme Court decisions, dubious electronic voting machines.
There will be “Not MY President” stickers and tshirts. There already are http://tinyurl.com/63wlv6 I could hardly care if this guy chooses to wear them or not.
Obama hasn't done anything bad yet, though it's entirely possible he will, but right now “Don’t Blame Me I Voted McCain” paraphernalia would be premature.
And whatever you think of Obama he clearly isn't stupid, so a tshirt emblazoned with “Somewhere in Illinois a village is missing it’s idiot” would say much more about the person wearing it than Obama.
Asa Dem and a New Yorker, one of the things I'm always most bothered by are the accusation of “un-American tendencies.” Maybe now's a good time for the Republicans to learn the difference between dissent and being unpatriotic. I have no doubt there will be dissent at times from the left, even though Obama's our boy.
I do want to point out that the tone of your post has the usual blindness to the ugliness of the right, as if they're still a bunch of dignified George Wills. I only remember one speech last night where mention of the opponent drew boos, and it wasn't delivered in Chicago.
One you missed ChrisWWW:
“no bumper stickers calling for impeachment over any slight”
Those calling for impeachment are doing so because of the possibility of actual crimes, like starting a war on purposefully misconstrued evidence, torture, Gitmo, DoJ issues etc. All of which, of course, is considered by the right much less criminally suspect than getting a blow job.
“Yes I will argue against issues and ideology, but arguing issues and ideology are NOT THE SAME as the bumper sticker hate that we have seen from the left.”
As a reader of the moderate voice, I count myself lucky to read at least some theoretically “centrist” posts, and I do visit a few other conservative sites, even some way-right sites like PowerLine Blog. (I'm friends with Hinderaker's brother, Eric.) Generally they are furious at the mistreatment by the “left” and the audacity of the mainsteam media to have “won” this election for the liberals.
However when I see this quote by Lady Logician proclaiming the hatred of the left and the condencending scolding regarding the mix-up of attacking ideals versus character, I have to absolutely laugh at the hypocrisy of that statement when I remember, right up to the last moment, about my candidate and thus, directly, me, being “unAmerican,” “unpatriotic,” “Marxist,” “Muslim,” “terrorist-sympathizing,”godless,” “elite,” “out of touch with the REAL America.” Value-demonstrating GOP “issues and ideology” versus the left's typical demonization? Give me a break.
I just can't say it any better than Glenn Greenwald when he describes how the deeply-entrenched right is already proclaiming it's decree that the new administration will necessarily need to become “center-right” in order to enjoy the privileges of governing the country and to enjoy the support of moderate Republicans. They even suggest that the reason his campaign was successful was because he became more “center-right.” Of course the week before he was chastised as being the most radically liberal politician to ever step foot in Washington, or in the history of the world for that matter (when he wasn't too busy palling around with terrorists.)
Thank you Karl Rove for perfecting a machine of smear, fear-mongering, hatred and divisiveness, the celebration of incompetency, the contempt for evidence, and best of all and as a result of your brilliant intuition, the fatigue of the larger percentage of Americans to those very ideas. I thank you for the Democratic victory this season.
roro80,
Thanks for catching that one. Almost exactly what I would have said
I am assuming that this woman is young enough to have not seen anything of Republican behavior during the Clinton administration so she can feel justified in her condescension? Odd, I remember watching a video just the other day of a crowd waiting for the Straight Talk Express to arrive at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania and shall we be charitable and say that they weren't all that upstanding? There was the guy who looked to be in his late 50's who screamed “Bomb Obama!” repeatedly and when the reporter asked what he meant by that he was told that even strangers were telling this upstanding Republican that if Obama should be elected he would be assassinated. But of course his eloquence was expressed by looking at the cameraman and cocking his hand like a gun which he “fired” and then looked into the camera with a rather smug look.
And the “We are justified so F@$k the high road” has started on cue. It's like kids saying the “he” started it. I am just so sick of the Bs on both sides. Grow up