Losing with grace

Jump to Comments

In 2003, I interviewed a Liberian couple who were visiting their son in Lexington.
They were older and very tired of the constant running they had endured back in their homeland because rogue rebels, with ever-changing causes and government support, would make the lives of villagers miserable.
The woman said she loved being in America because here, if a group lost an election, they would simply concede and move on for the betterment of the country. That hadn’t been true in Liberia, she said. If a group lost, they would takeover the government despite the election results.
I thought about that when I heard repeatedly that supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton, who lost the Democratic presidential primary to Sen. Barack Obama, weren’t willing to let the results stand. As the Democrats met in Denver for their national convention, Clinton supporters asked for more concessions and threatened to vote for Republican John McCain instead of their party’s choice if they didn’t get what they wanted.
But what they really wanted was for Clinton to be the Democratic nominee. That won’t happen.
According to the Liberian couple, that should have been the end of it, for the betterment of the country. That’s what the couple had always seen here during their stay.
Never before have I seen the losing candidate or his or her supporters act as arrogantly, childishly, or uncompromisingly as these folks in Denver. It’s as though they have never lost at anything before.
Please let Clinton bow out of this election cycle gracefully. Otherwise you supporters will make any future elections featuring Clinton a scarey thought.
I will be watching anxiously to see what happens when Clinton speaks to the convention faithfuls Tuesday evening.
Maybe she can make this election look more like it is occurring in America than Liberia.

1 Comment

Filed under politics