Why it is so problematic that Trump is a bad loser
Usually losers in the presidential election publicly admit their defeat. A look into the past shows how important this is. But this time everything is different.
Trump has so far cut a good figure as a winner, at least that is what his supporters apparently saw. Now the incumbent US president has lost the election. Even if he tries to shake the election result through legal means, it looks as if he will not be allowed a second term in office. This draws attention to the question of how to step down with dignity in this situation.
Because the loser in the election also has duties in the USA: a defeat includes what is known as concession speech. What is meant is the obligatory admission of the loser to have lost the election - conciliatory words, which are aimed equally at the future president and the voters. The speech is an unwritten but not unimportant part of the script of American election campaigns, actually.
When and if this will happen in 2020 - that is not certain. Trump's initial reaction to the announcement of Biden's victory was as expected. The man in the White House defies the election result and does not want to recognize the Democrats as his successor. Trump had already said on election day in an election campaign office in Arlington, Virginia that he is not yet considering a speech as a loser or a winner. And further: "You know, winning is easy, losing is never easy - not for me."
In addition, the Trump camp has filed lawsuits in several states. Trump announced that he would go to the highest American court, the Supreme Court. None of this sounds necessarily like a dignified exit. But how will Trump react when possible legal disputes are off the table and there is no getting around Biden's presidency?
In any case, there are many positive historical examples in which Trump could learn how to lose. Among other things, there is his former challenger, Hillary Clinton, who previously reviled Trump in the worst possible way. He called her "Fraudulent Hillary" ("Crooked Hillary") and did not prevent his supporters from chanting to demand their arrest ("Lock her up"). Even Clinton managed to admit defeat and ask the American people to give Donald Trump a chance as president.
And then there was veteran Republican John McCain, who lost to a young charismatic Senator from Illinois in 2008: "Senator Obama has achieved something great - for himself personally and for this country. I applaud and express my deep condolences for him from the fact that his beloved grandmother was not allowed to live to see this day. Even if our faith tells us that she dwells in the presence of her Creator and is very proud of the great man she raised. " That was a speech that was up to the historic moment.
After the US election in 2000, the Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore showed how it should not be done. When Gore called his adversary George W. Bush, the future US president was stunned. "Just so that I understand you correctly," Bush asked the Democrats on the phone, "you are calling me to withdraw your admission of defeat?" Only half an hour earlier, Al Gore had congratulated his opponent on his election victory. Gore's revocation of his initially admitted defeat was a scandal. What caused him to do so were discrepancies in the Florida count. The Democrat tried in vain to get a recount. Weeks later it was clear: the new president was called Bush.
The trenches from the election campaign are to be filled in
The concession speech is not anchored in the constitution or otherwise legally. Nevertheless, it has been a tradition since 1896; it is an integral part of the democratic rite of the presidential election. In 1896, the Democrat William Jennings Bryan telegramed his Republican adversary William McKinley two days after the election. Since then, the losers have always admitted defeat in some form and congratulated the winner, 32 times in the past 120 years.
The first concession speech on the radio was given by Al Smith in 1928 after losing to Herbert Hoover. Live on television, viewers first watched Adlai Stevenson in 1952 as he congratulated Dwight D. Eisenhower on winning the election. Over the years, building blocks have been established that keep appearing in the speeches.
