Description: The most dangerous combination since fox and news
Grown-ups understand that politics involves a lot of disappointment. It sucks to lose elections. It sucks to watch your political adversaries take charge. It sucks to watch legislation you care about fall by the wayside while legislation you loathe becomes law. No one gets to win all the time.
When a political party experiences the disappointment of losing power, it can take comfort in knowing there are two legitimate safeguards in place. And only two. First, the losing power can devise a better message and platform to attract more voters in the next election so they may reclaim the reins of power. And second, if the ruling party goes too far, the courts are there to protect the rights of the minority.
We live in a country though where too many of our leaders refuse to act responsibly and accept electoral outcomes that place them in a legislative minority. This looks like senators using an arcane rule like the filibuster to prevent the majority from accomplishing the things they were elected to accomplish. It looks like legislators stripping their state’s governor of power when the governorship goes to the other party. It looks like leaders unwilling to acknowledge when they lost a fair and free election.