The Day After

How do serious politicians deal with the results the day after the votes have been counted? Of course they are expected to stand before their faithful supporters, thanking them for all their hard work. And then they must say an affirmative word about their adversaries. Particularly this year, given the overflow of emotions during the weeks leading up to the election, it is Important that they respond with some degree of rationality. So what are they to say today?

I have known candidates who face their supporters, the opposition and the public, carrying in their pockets two speeches, one to be used if they have won, and the other if they have lost. Thus, they are saved from an immediate emotional outpouring that might prove both unworthy and destructive. I learned this lesson in the one municipal election I lost. Operating out of a rational response would have been far better then what I did say to an almost empty hotel ballroom. It was not the gracious response I should have employed. I needed to have previously written two sets of remarks.

What is true of politicians is also true of journalists and others who have been deeply invested in the election.

This column is appearing appear on Wednesday, November 4, the day after the election. What might save me from responding out of an overheated emotional caldron? It may be the way these weekly pieces get produced. My columns are first drafted and continually revised in the weeks before they are sent to my various audiences. At best, the final draft goes to my faithful proofreaders one full week before publication. I assume that Biden will have won, tallying margins of several million popular votes and a substantial majority in the electoral college.
If I am wrong I probably should say very little. But what if I have been reasonably accurate? Gloating over the size of the victory or trashing an already bruised Donald Trump is inappropriate and crude. His reference to the newly elected Vice President as a Communist monster is no excuse for descending with him into that sewer. So here is my response to the electoral results if Democrats have won.

While it is good to savor the fruits of victory, this is no moment to rehash the arguments or heap abuse on the losers. The curtain must now come down on this brutal political contest. President-elect Biden must resist every temptation to disrespect the loser. Every effort must now be directed to healing the terrible wounds infflicting the nation. Here are a few of our immediate concerns.

Health insurance for all, doing what is necessary to shut down the crippling virus

Carefully and safely opening the nation—its schools and colleges, its large and small businesses

Recovering and re-imagining jobs

Healing racial and ethnic divides

Recovering our historic international alliances

Re-asserting America’s leadership in the care of the earth

Generating a tax system that honors economic equity

Renewing our trust in the Constitution

These are among the concerns that now must consume the American effort of both winners and losers in the contest that is now over.

If my hope is misplaced, may I be saved from exploding all over the page.