Political pundits and analysts are willing navel gazers and are constantly talking about the 'long game' in politics. After Tuesday night's upset election in Virginia they will certainly be posting stories with Greek philosopher Aristotle in mind… “One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.”
A clever saying and also a cautionary tale for Republicans who have been standing outside the Democrats' power tent looking in. While they must take some well-deserved celebration time and toast their guys' successes, they cannot drown the deeper sorrows that remain from Trump's loss in 2020. Headiness is deadly and causes overconfidence which, if left to dominate our decision-making, can lead to faulty strategizing and even complacency.
Democrats understand this trap and are practiced at avoiding it. They retreat to lick their wounds, but they don’t isolate themselves from the reality that everybody loses sooner or later and that the long game means you get back on the elephant that's thrown you. The Dems re-play the battle frame by frame, pouring over campaign ads, speeches, townhalls, voter interviews, and they do this in groups to provide support for everybody in the group. They don’t act like jilted lovers and go in search of the "enemy."
They do go on the offensive, again, hitting the media with emotionally-charged talking points delivered with conviction, and like the Terminator, they vow to be back. They don the patriot's cap and speak of the real challenge to America that only they can satisfy; that the election was an anomaly. Few of them will blame themselves or their candidates because once admitting blame, it can't be 'unadmitted.' While the bell may have tolled for them, they'll contend that it was really meant for everyone and if given the opportunity next time around they will right the wrongs of a flawed election.
Republicans tend to take defeat hard and mourn their losses longer, especially those that are ideological. They take rejection personally and they wonder how anybody could misread the threats to democracy, traditional American values, common sense or not see the dangers of voting for a closet (or un-closeted) socialist. Republicans retreat to weep in solitude. Eventually they come together. At that point, they have purged themselves of their tears but they have also suppressed their anger whereas their Democrat counterparts USE their anger like a reserve gas tank to fuel their forward momentum.
Love hurts.
As do elections, especially those that occur when the country is teetering on or mired in cultural or economic chaos. We allow our political analysts to pour over the candidates' campaigns and do a collective autopsy designed to ascertain the "real" cause of death/defeat. They then offer up their conclusions in an unending stream of postulations that sometimes hit their mark but more often take us on a circular journey outside the political corral where the view is not tainted by the dirty little details of campaign missteps. The candidates, themselves, are another matter. Seldom will they admit their mistakes. It's better to deny or demur than to own up to a failed strategy or poor communication or, God forbid, a campaign built on a phony premise.
Maybe our way of conducting politics is the way it's done the world over, and maybe candidates, the parties, the electorate, the donors or the media all have pre-ordained parts to play. What I do know is that we have a duty to look at our victories and defeats through both the lens of the past and the present. Aristotle said it best: "The society that loses its grip on the past is in danger, for it produces men who know nothing but the present, and who are not aware that life had been, and could be, different from what it is."
We must continue to celebrate Election Day and the days immediately after not so much for the wins or the strategic triumphs, but more for the opportunity to make our voices heard. If we can manage to remember that perhaps we have earned the right to hold another one.
Stephan Helgesen is a retired career U.S. diplomat. He is the author of eleven books, five of which are on American politics. He operates a political news story aggregator website, www.projectpushback.com and can be reached at: stephan@stephanhelgesen.com
