Democracy means not being a bad loser
By John Welford
@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
January 6, 2021 5:58am CST
There is a general principle behind Democracy, which is that the Governed are asked from time to time to decide on who they wish to be governed by. Several things follow from that basic idea.
One is that the question needs to be posed to the largest possible proportion of the people being governed. That implies that just about anyone who is going to be affected by what the elected people do has a right to be consulted by means of having a vote, and there need to be excellent reasons why anyone is denied that right - such as being too young or being severely mentally ill, but those are just about the only criteria I can think of.
Something else that is implied by democracy is that the result of an election is respected by everyone, including all electors and candidates.
What that does not mean is that you cry foul if you do not win. OK - there can be technical reasons why an election result is called wrongly, but in a modern Western-style democracy, such events are extremely rare and can be sorted out very easily to everyone's satisfaction. A candidate is perfectly entitled to ask for a recount if the result is extremely close, but assuming that the election has been rigged in the other guy's favour is simply not an acceptable line to take.
Rigged elections simply do not happen in Western democracies. They are conducted by independent authorities who hold no political bias and are not subject to undue influence - whether financial or of any other kind.
In other words, if you lose an election, that is just tough. You just accept the result - which you would presumably have done if you had won. You lost - be gracious, acknowledge the loss and move on.
7 people like this
6 responses
@Fleura (30391)
• United Kingdom
6 Jan 21
Trump - gracious?? Who are you kidding?
Seriously, he would be much better off if he just conceded defeat and then started preparing for the next election, it would give him a chance of getting back in. The more ridiculous he makes himself appear, the worse his chances and at this rate he might find himself in prison instead.
@DocAndersen (54402)
• United States
6 Jan 21
your response to winning or losing shows more of you as a person and honestly nothing to do with demoncray. I would argue it is a freedom of speech issue not an issue of demoncracy.
@DocAndersen (54402)
• United States
6 Jan 21
@indexer oh yes. the more free the speech the more likely you'll get well sadly what the US is getting now.