What I’m Reading: “Republicans Who Questioned the 2020 Results Are Bringing Back an Old Norm…
What I’m Reading: “Republicans Who Questioned the 2020 Results Are Bringing Back an Old Norm: Admitting Defeat”
For Democrats facing the loss of their majority in the House of Representatives and, at best, retaining a razor-sharp majority in the Senate, this may seem a small victory indeed: Dozens of Republicans who lost congressional contests or governorships are actually admitting defeat and doing so graciously. According to the NBC News article, “Republicans Who Questioned the 2020 Results Are Bringing Back an Old Norm: Admitting Defeat”:
From Maine to Michigan, Senate to state legislature, Republican to Democrat, most high-profile candidates who fell short in the 2022 midterm elections are offering quick concessions and gracious congratulations to their opponents. They include candidates who earned endorsements from former President Donald Trump by embracing his false claims that elections are rigged against Republicans.
Examples are
Mehmet Oz, the Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania who lost to John Fetterman, wished “him and his family all the best, both personally and as our next United States senator.” Oz had been endorsed by Trump.
Dan Cox lost to Democrat Wes Moore, wishing him “every blessing and success” in as Maryland’s governor, though Cox also said that “the outcome [of the election] was a complete surprise.” He had attended the rally before the insurrection at the Capital on Jan. 6, though he did not personally enter the Capital.
Paul LePage, former Main governor, “accepts results” of his loss to current governor Janet Mills, though he said, with frustration, that election results indicated that, to voters, abortion was “more important” than the rising cost of heating oil.
However, it’s also true that dozens of Republican candidates who won on Tuesday support the notion that the 2020 election was stolen, and they will take seats alongside election deniers already in office.
But is the civility expressed by losing candidates so small a victory?
It’s less than a month since an article by Robert Draper in The Atlantic accused the Republican Party of being “A Political Party Unhinged From Truth,” based on his research about the state of the party. Wrote Draper,
I frequently encountered Republicans who…could not conceive of Trump’s adversaries possessing human attributes. Instead, they viewed Democrats, government bureaucrats, and members of the media like me as any combination of Communists, traitors, swamp creatures, and human scum.
Draper concedes that both political parties engage in the “spinning, caricaturing, or routine dissembling” historically expected of American political parties. But he singles out the Republican Party since the rise President Donald Trump as the one guilty of the “ mass consumption of dangerous, dehumanizing lies.”
I find that I am encouraged these days by the behavior of any losing political candidate, whether Republican or Democrat, who is willing and able to concede defeat without villainizing an opponent or issuing unfounded allegations of election fraud. I value civility, a rare commodity these days.
Links:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/09/maryland-governor-cox-concedes-moore/
https://www.wabi.tv/2022/11/09/former-gov-lepage-concedes-cites-grave-concerns-over-inflation-maine/
Originally published at https://everwondering.substack.com on November 11, 2022.