Thank you, Hillary, for running as our Democratic candidate for President of the United States.
Thank you, Angela Marx — one of our very own DK members — for running as a Democrat for the House of Representatives.
Thank you, other Kossacks and other Democrats across the land who ran for offices from town dogcatcher to school board member to state legislator or governor or congressperson.
You all took the time to dedicate a great portion of your lives to doing your part, large or small, to make our world a better place. You invested money, energy, fears and tears, hopes and dreams, and strained relationships in order to build and improve and help and nourish people and our institutions. You took the risk of being mocked, misrepresented, and maligned because it was more important to you to make a positive difference than it was to preserve your own peace of mind and safeguard your dignity.
To those who won their primaries and general elections, congratulations and best wishes for the tasks ahead of you.
To those who lost, congratulations also: you did your best and strove honorably and you deserve credit for that. You did something few of us are willing to do: you walked the walk, even if you didn't arrive at the destination you hoped for.
"Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan." — Count Galeazzo Ciano
To those who offer constructive criticism about your loss, thank you. Wise and helpful insights can lead the unsuccessful candidates, or their successors, to better strategies and approaches the next time and perhaps turn the previous loss into a new win.
To those who offer sniping and personal criticism and derision, no thank you. If someone near and dear to you strove to win an athletic championship or a job promotion or a poetry-writing contest but failed, how would you react?
- Would you tell him he's a failure and should be ashamed?
- Would you say she had lousy skills and mediocre talents and never should have aspired in the first place?
- Would you point out every one of his flaws and magnify them and wonder how someone so hopelessly inept could ever hope to succeed?
- Would you belittle and blame and do your best to ensure she never dared try again?
If so, you are not being a good person. You have more invested in you being "right" than in anyone achieving and succeeding. Acting that way with a political candidate may be less personal than with a loved one but it doesn't make it okay.
Words have power and they range far beyond where you mean them to be heard. Words of anger and accusation and disparagement fly from your lips not just to the object of your derision but to those who may be thinking of daring to strive the next time around. They hear "She was a loser!" or "He is damaged goods" or "It was entirely her fault" or "He should never have even tried" and realize that they may not just not win but that they will be reviled because the dice, for whatever reasons, came up snake eyes this time.
You act as if you have all of the answers and show contempt for those who refused to follow your advice. Yet you don't act on your own convictions because you don't put your ass on the line, running for office. If you're really sure about what you think you know, why not? You would clearly win, right? You totally know exactly how to do so, so what's stopping you?
Maybe it's because somewhere deep down you know you're not infallible. Maybe you realize you're angry and disappointed and worried about the future and that you can't control the million-and-one things that affect a campaign, win or lose. Maybe that's what's so frustrating to you, the realization and fear that even if someone does a very good job it still may not be enough, for any number of unknown reasons or mysteries when trying to persuade people — a species harder to herd than cats — to do the "right" thing.
Maybe you should show your appreciation to those who have the guts to get out there and try. Maybe you should consider how to offer your insights and ideas in constructive ways that will support and build for the future.
There will be a next time, a new election, and new candidates. We need them. They should know that we have their backs, that we will support them, that we will appreciate their hard work and personal sacrifices, and that we won't add to their own sense of loss and grief by ungratefully turning on them.
They deserve that. They deserve our thanks for fighting the good fight.