Electoral Sour Grapes

Ted Folkert – January 5, 2021

We used to have two vibrant political parties, both of which held majority positions in local, state, and federal governments. Neither party was dominant for any extended period of time as voters vacillated from one to the other as good times and tough times prevailed. And as such a change in political power took place the lesser party worked harder to gain more control over the way we are governed. That is the definition of politics. That is what makes democracy work, not perfectly, but better than other forms of government such as monarchy or plutocracy.

Such a system has always been considered a healthy diversion of political ideals and has been accepted as a normal sequence of events. It has served to temper extremes from liberalism or conservatism, a much preferred system than one with numerous political ideals, or one with scattered voter segments too numerous to support a sensible system for a sharing of political power.

But now, in a time of the voters preferring a more liberal government, one which leans more heavily toward support of all the people, particularly those who suffer from joblessness or lack of income sufficient to support themselves in a reasonable fashion, we have a Republican Party which cannot accept the desires of the majority and choose to contest the decision of the voters to elect a president of the United States and, because they are not victorious, declare massive voter fraud, voter fraud without any evidence whatsoever. This is a dangerous decision by disgruntled politicos and a dangerous trend for the salvation of a strong and vibrant political system in a sharing of ideals in a democratic electoral process.

The experts tell us this won’t change to results of the elections but it certainly is a drastic diversion from a majority rule system which has prevailed for hundreds of years and is a dangerous trend for the future of a viable democratic system of government. We can only hope that these sore losers, such as Josh Hawley of Missouri, can swallow their pride and resist the urge to get their name in the headlines, and back off of a movement which could serve to render their political positions toothless in the future. This entire sour-grapes movement will be labeled as such and label those leading this movement to gain political recognition with an undemocratic display of losers remorse as extremists lacking common democratic principles.

If those who consider themselves losers wish to instill change they should do what political parties have always done, work harder to change to minds of the voters in upcoming electoral processes. That is what we call democracy.

Think about it!