Republican or Democrat, our system requires accepting facts and losing with grace
The storming of the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday demonstrated a fundamental truth about our nation: Democracy requires losing. We need citizens that can experience loss as a productive experience instead of an excuse for destruction.
The mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol building had gathered for a “Save America” rally. They thought they came to save our nation, but they really came to destroy it.
The orderly and peaceful transfer of power is as important as the elections that give us control over our government, and the rights that protect us from tyranny and oppression. The political scientist Adam Przeworski said it best: “Democracy is a system in which parties lose elections.”
We write as American citizens who are directly involved in making productive use of electoral defeats, as current chair of the Sedgwick County Democratic Party, former chair of the Sedgwick County Republican Party, and a Wichita State professor involved in getting students internships in politics and government. We stay involved in the political process, no matter our opinion of its results.
The three of us, like any group of citizens, agree on some issues and disagree on others. We agree on the need to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, for example, but disagree about abortion rights. We can only maintain our working relationship if we can disagree without being disagreeable.
One of the insurrectionists that roamed the Capitol carried a sign quoting Benjamin Franklin that our government is “a Republic, if you can keep it.” Keeping our republic in 2021 requires more than voting, volunteering and advocating for our individual values.
Citizenship in 2021 requires respectfully criticizing those who believe and spread false information and conspiracies, even if they are friends, colleagues or family. In a democracy all citizens have power, and we must speak truth to that power.
The insurrection at the Capitol shows the danger when people lack a common set of facts. The Framers of our Constitution in 1787 were most worried about tyranny emerging from Congress, with support from an unstable mass of uniformed citizens. They did not anticipate the lethal combination of (mostly) direct election of the president with the personal connection that presidents have with citizens through mass and social media.
President Trump still claims that his “landslide” election was “stolen,” even as he commits to leaving office Jan. 20. We will have to wait until at least 2025 to again see the personification of the peaceful transition of power, with the outgoing president sitting behind the new president as she or he takes the oath of office.
As a nation of United States and united citizens, we should use the disastrous and deadly events of last Wednesday to renew our bonds of citizenship. Our Founders made July 4 our Independence Day. We should make Jan. 6 our Interdependence Day, and resolve to compete in elections and then accept when we lose.
Jan. 6 can be a day that we commit to finding ways we can cooperate, even if continuing our conflicts is easier and more personally satisfying. We can be productive losers, so that our democracy can be the winner.