Nobody Likes Bad Winners (Or Sore Losers)
November 18, 2024

By Andrew Samaras

              After a protracted and eventful election season, the moment to exhale has arrived. This year’s Super Bowl election, in which more than 153 million Americans donned their jerseys and showed up to support their teams, is finally ended. Many citizens disagreed with the coaching decisions and the play calls, but the time has expired, the post-game interviews have aired, and the commentators, journalists, and casual observers at home are actively analyzing the statistics and producing theories to explain the results. The Republicans won. Trump won. And while the full scope of the victory is yet undetermined, it is apparent that they won big. In the immediate aftermath, it has become abundantly clear that the United States is in desperate need of a healthy dose of sportsmanship.

              Sportsmanship is a subjective quality that exists on a scale, which is why the unsportsmanlike conduct call is one of the most controversial in sports. Fanatics passionately cheering for the winning side will think nothing of their star player taunting an opponent or performing a demeaning celebration in the endzone. They may also forgive that extra unnecessary shove out-of-bounds or their coach’s decision to run up the score. Some fans will admit, and most will agree, that they may feel differently about such a decision or call if they were on the losing side. But there are also norms and expectations imposed on athletes, by their leagues’ governing bodies, their sponsors, and society. Those players who conduct themselves with class and fairness, both in the soaring heights of victory and the unfathomable lows of defeat, are revered and rewarded for their good behavior. And those who cross certain lines, like people who celebrate when a player is injured, suffer financial and reputational damage and endure pointed criticism from the relentless world of sports journalism. This standard of behavior certainly cannot be relaxed in the realm of politics, where the stakes are higher than any other type of contest.

              The pride of democracy is in its peaceful transfers of power, but we cannot be satisfied merely with a concession from the losing party and the absence of riots and mobs in our nation’s capital. Our democracy requires more than that from us in order to function. We are a nation that understands the value, in all other spheres, of the arts of the gracious win and the dignified defeat. However, the unfortunate image that our nation has been projecting to the world this past week, is that of a largely divided and spiteful people, like sports fans who experience such vitriol while engaging with their hobby that one wonders why they bother with it at all. And while the ecstatic and the grieving can be allowed time to process their emotions, the climbing temperature of our political climate, left unattended, will boil over with potentially catastrophic instability. We must understand that there is no upside for a nation of bad winners and sore losers, because the world cannot afford to give the U.S. its emotional space. 

              Bad winners are easy to recognize and hard to admire. They gloat and jeer, and they take pleasure in the grief of their opponents. They are without class and lack empathy, and their pride and condescension make them unlikeable. Their hostility only worsens when they get the reaction they seek from their targets, which is further demonstrations of pain. They see no benefit to outreach, consolation, or compromise; to them, victory is impunity, which is wasted if it is not abused. One need not wade further into the waters of Elon Musk’s X than the homepage to see examples of this sort of person. The internet is dripping with the delight of the Trump-voting masses, who, in the reality that their media paints for them, view the election as the silent majority rising up to snatch victory from the corrupt jaws of the deep state and the system. No surprise here—the history of Trump’s character during and since his first term, and his divisive enemy from within rhetoric, were never going to produce a party of graceful winners. But these giddy victors should make no mistake; abuse of their mandate is a strategic mistake that may lead to the alienation of the reluctant Trump voter, which could result in losses for the GOP in 2026 and 2028 not unlike those of 2020 and 2022.

             Sore losers are equally loathsome, and they inspire no compassion when they refuse to shake hands with their opponents, or when they avoid watching the game film and instead retreat to a silo of self-pity and resentment. In 2020, Trump and his loyal republicans employed being a sore loser as a strategy, and fans of America worldwide, from republicans and democrats to international allies watched, dismayed, as the world adjusted to a new reality where the U.S. was an unstable republic. Yet after witnessing this, and even after obsessively criticizing Trump’s behavior following his loss in 2020, much of the democratic party establishment and base are now compounding their own defeat by abdicating their responsibility to take accountability for and learn from their failings.

             Although the words shouted by a Trump voter at their neighbor disappointedly removing the Harris/Walz sign out of the yard are unlikely to be sympathetic, no latitude should be given to democrats actively embracing undignified defeat. The urge among Far-Left Media voices and democratic voters at large to in their turn cast doubt over the results, to fear monger, and to blame Americans—whether implicating Latino men; Black men; Young men; White men; All men; White Women; Religious Women; Old Women—must all be ignored. They are fruitless distractions from the poor planning, flawed strategy, and wildly unpopular candidate that are the actual proximate causes of the nearly 3-million-vote margin between Trump and Harris. To those for whom a loss serves as a motivation to learn and grow, the sore loser’s desperate grasping for a scapegoat to blame, whether the rules, refs, fans, or other team, is a dishonest affront and an unforgivable waste of time.

             Gracious winners, those who can win with flourish and style while staying respectful and uplifting the game, have an undeniable magnetism that garners the respect of opponents and teammates alike. They project an image of confidence and security and inspire conviction of the future success of their endeavors. The dignified loser also inspires faith in their future success. Those who conduct themselves with dignity can lose with pride, and those who immediately begin objectively, honestly, and transparently analyzing the flaws in their previous strategy are more likely to avoid suffering the same defeat again. It is incumbent upon us to come together as a society and strive to be these latter examples. We do not need to agree with our opponents, and we are not even expected to like them, but we cannot afford to forsake our civility. The world cannot afford for American societal divisions to continue to go unbridged. Cheer or cry, but shake hands and set off to change someone’s mind tomorrow.