Growing up, when someone acted like a sore loser, everyone would call that person a big ol’ baby. All of us got called that at some point in time, but we didn’t get called it more than once or twice before we learned that everyone loses at some point. We could either accept the loss and move on, or eventually no one would play with you.
The lame duck is being a big ol’ baby. There is no other way to put it, he lost. He lost fair and square in the same way Jimmy Carter lost (but not as badly), the way George H.W. Bush lost, the way Al Gore lost (but not as closely), the same way John McCain lost, and the same way Hillary Clinton lost. They all lost and they all bowed out gracefully when they saw they had lost. Even Al Gore, after all the turmoil and the decision of the Supreme Court, no matter how he felt, acknowledged he lost and we all moved on.
It is the moving on that is one of the hallmarks of our democracy. We know that every four years, our candidate may, or may not, emerge victorious based on the Electoral College count. All of us have felt the disappointment in having a candidates on the losing end, just as we have felt the jubilation of having our candidate win.
Whichever side we were rooting for, once the media called it, as they did this year, we accepted the outcome and went about our business. The leaders of both parties called to congratulate the President-elect, if they were good sports—a conversation for another time. Then we accepted decision and went on about our business, vowing to help our candidate as much as we can at the next election.
No one has ever cried foul as much as the lame duck. No one holed themselves up in the White House except the current lame duck. No one refused to allow the paperwork to be signed providing for the transition to begin except the current lame duck. No one has threatened to fire people who started job searching before the transition occurred except the current lame duck. No one has ever refused to call the winner as much as the party of the lame duck or the lame duck himself. No one has fired so many decision makers upon losing as much as the current lame duck.
And no one has ever placated and provided such an illusion a lame duck has falsely won because they are afraid of upsetting a big ol’ sore loser who will throw a temper tantrum when he doesn’t get his way. What child, let alone an adult, does that?
The best tweet of the day kind of sums up what needs to happen was by Xorje Olivares: “I need America to pull a Mexican parent & leave Trump crying on the floor throwing a full-blown tantrum and pretend NOTHING is happening as they keep on shopping.” I will say this is what most good parents do, that or look the child straight in the eye and tell them to knock it off, and knock it off right now!
Where,oh where, are the good parents, aka adults, in the Republican Party?
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 