I was disgusted 4 years ago when, in a free and open election, many of Hillary Clinton’s supporters’ wounded pride war cry was “Not MY President!” Who the hell did they think their president was? Mrs. Clinton? Former president Clinton? George the Dogcatcher? Worse were the actions of political partisans within the FBI and other executive branch organizations who violated the Constitution they were sworn to uphold to advance their own personal agendas, obstruct justice and interfere with the activities of a lawfully elected president.
Civility and legality were further diminished when the Speaker of the House – the Speaker! – made it a point to be seen tearing up the pages of the president’s State of the Union address while he was giving it.
I held a faint glimmer of hope that the current transition would be handled with more class. It was only a glimmer, quickly extinguished. Politicians and Voters Behaving Badly does not seem to be the domain of any one politician, party, or voter. Incredulous that their candidate could possibly lose, those who would not accept the loss – and to his everlasting shame, the President himself – set out to upset the lawful election of 2020.
Before anyone seeks to remind us that there must have been some fraudulent voters or honest mistakes, that is correct. In a nation with 239 million eligible voters, not all of whom are registered to vote, it is not merely possible, it is inevitable that some mistakes will be made. Of those registered to vote, 159 million votes were cast, with 81 million for President-elect Biden, 74 million for President Trump, and 4 million for “all others.” The two-party system is alive and well, even if it has become bleating and abrasive.
Let us imagine that there may have been a million; no, a million and a half; no, make it 1.59 million mistakes made by honest poll workers. That would mean that 99% of votes cast were recorded properly. In fact, it seems the percentage was even higher.
It saddens me to report that the petulance and sobbing pomposity of the “Not my president, and I will leave the country if he is elected” crowd in 2016 has now been matched by the ill-informed exuberance and self-righteousness of the “he cannot have lost; it had to have been rigged” crowd.
In each case, 2016 and 2020, the appropriate after-election response would be for us to congratulate the winner while telling them we would work within the law to ensure theirs is a one-term presidency while we labor tirelessly for the candidate we prefer. Start now and in 4 years it could happen.
Is it really worth descending to the level of a rabid rabble over something that will last only 4 years until we have another chance to right what at least some of the population considers the current wrongs? Our republic survived James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Millard Fillmore. I’m pretty sure we can handle whatever comes our way.
I could mention more recent presidents, but I will not. I served in uniform under seven different US presidents. Suffice it to say that I did not vote for all of them. Suffice it to say that I did not agree with all of their policies. But I never lowered myself to say, “Not my president.” Sometimes a majority of voters agreed with my choice, sometimes they did not. We have been given the precious gift of living in a democratic republic. Let us not besmirch it with petulance and vitriol.
This goes as well for our politicians. It is possible to fulfill the ideals of representative democracy. We speak of the members of the House or Senate as “on the other side of the aisle.” It is just an aisle, people, not an Iron Curtain. I remember how thunderously Tip O’Neill railed against Ronald Reagan and how Reagan responded with equally cutting humor, yet the two of them crossed the aisle frequently enough to foster something called “compromise” for the better governance of the nation.
The time has come for us to embrace toughness, yes, but toughness alongside decency, forbearance, and grace. None of these latter qualities make us less tough, less capable, less threatening in a real fight for our survival. They do, however, make us better citizens and better leaders.
President Trump has a momentous decision to make in the coming days. Will he believe he can bluster and bully his way into changing the results of an honest election? Will he enter the Twittersphere a recluse and never emerge? Will he stamp his feet and say he has been grievously wronged? Worst of all, will he repeat the mantra of Hillary supporters in 2016 and now say, “Not my president”?
Or will he acknowledge that a majority of the nation’s voters and a majority of the states, which appoint electors, have decided – for now, anyway – it was time for a change. It is not easy for any president to see what he considers his life’s work only half-finished. But a real leader will have the courage to say, “I had a good run,” will know that he can run again in 4 more years, and will, with decency, forbearance, and grace, congratulate the president-elect.
For me, having served and traveled in regions where autocracy was the order of the day, it has always been a hallmark of democracy to see the outgoing president looking on as the Chief Justice administered the oath of office to the new president.
The symbolism of that moment proclaims to the world, “We can change and yet remain the same.”
If none of this compels contemplation and unification, let me then suggest another model. Who remembers the Budweiser “frogs” TV commercial from one of the old Super Bowls where, at the end, the sage advice is given, frog to frog, “Let it go, Louie, let it go.”
Let it GO, Louie.
© 2021, JL Shaefer
Your comparison of the 2020 election loss by Republicans to the 2016 “not my president” movement did not mention, in my view, some key distinctions; (1) that Clinton accept the loss and delivered a concession speech, (2) Clinton did not claim that she won by a landslide, that there was massive election fraud and that the election was ‘stolen’, (3) Clinton did not incite an insurrection by telling her followers to march to the Capitol and take back the country, and (4) Democratic Representatives did not repeat the false claims by the out-going president. The speech by Mitt Romney in Congress, after the riot, is worth listening to.