Sports and politics (mainly political campaigns) have both been passions for me for a long time, but it’s pretty strange to see how similar the two have become despite being different things .
College football is a passion in the South. Every Saturday in the fall, we live and die with it. But no matter how much we enjoy it, we never truly learn to accept defeat graciously.
How often do we blame officials when our team loses? It’s not just that the other team was better. No, they were cheating, the referees were cheating, and the TV commentators were really picking on the other team. I know you are just as guilty of it as I am.
This has happened in politics as well. If our preferred candidate loses, it’s because the other party cheated. The election was rigged. A box with extra votes mysteriously appears out of nowhere. The people counting the votes were from the other side.
What happened after the 2020 election was shameful. Many people still try to convince us that what we saw with our own eyes did not actually happen, but we all know.
In the past, we supported candidates of our choice in political elections, voted for them on Election Day, and accepted the results. That didn’t mean we were happy, but we knew the result would go down in the history books.
I’m worried about what will happen in this year’s presidential election, regardless of who wins. One side is even more furious and has no intention of accepting the consequences.
There will be cries of illegal voting and that the other side is doing everything behind the scenes.
There was a time when the day after Election Day meant the end of that year’s elections. We all moved on with our lives and just waited for election time to come again.
No more.
When we wake up a few weeks later on November 6th, no one knows what is going on or what will happen to the losing side.
In soccer, the best advice when your team loses is to start thinking about the next week. That’s what I’m trying to do. After all, there are more important things to worry about.
The same should apply to elections. If our side loses, start thinking about the next time you vote. The next election will definitely be held.
Still, being a good loser is never easy.
Chris Bridges is editor-in-chief of the Walton Tribune. Email comments about this column to chris.bridges@waltontribune.com.
