One of the keys to the long-term success of any democracy is the peaceful transition of power. For years, leaders of both parties have supported that, even when their bases had questions such as with Richard Nixon in 1960 or Al Gore in 2000.
Not anymore. Today, the Democratic Party is the party of sore losers. More than anything else the Trump-cheated-and-colluded-with-Russia-to-win-the-election conspiracy theory was born out of the simple fact that Hillary Clinton lost the election.
Hillary herself has thrown out so many wild theories of how the election was stolen from her, it is hard to keep track. In 2017 it was over Wisconsin’s voter ID law, even though she did not campaign in Wisconsin and white women’s inability to think for themselves — meaning they did not blindly accept the liberal female candidate, and she is still going. Well over two years after the election they are still coming, as Hillary earlier this month claimed she lost because of the Supreme Court saying parts of the Voting Rights Act were unconstitutionally outdated.
Take this in strong contrast to former Vice President Al Gore who lost a much closer election but after the election moved on to speak on his personal passion, climate change, and not go on a years-long speaking tour and write a book whining about how he lost.
It is not only Hillary who is the sore loser but the entire Democratic Party establishment. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer picked another sore loser, Stacey Abrams, to give the Democrats’ response to President Trump’s State of the Union address last month. There is no doubt that Abrams lost the Georgia gubernatorial election outside of the range of a recount. Yet Abrams says she accepts she is not governor, but not that she lost the election.
That is your Democratic Party in 2019.
The effects of this are clear and it is not just about being sore losers. President Trump’s nominees have faced unprecedented obstruction with the primary rationale being that President Trump did not win the election.
Minority Leader Schumer forced the Republicans to end the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees when he filibustered Neil Gorsuch, because he felt: “It is unseemly to be moving forward so fast on confirming a Supreme Court justice with a lifetime appointment while this big gray cloud of an FBI investigation hangs over the presidency.”
He has used this rationale over and over, so that nominees across the administration, from appointments to high profile positions in the Department of Justice to noncontroversial appointments to regional boards, have been needlessly delayed and obstructed.
The disconnect goes deep. While much of the Democratic Party base is enthralled with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her “Green New Deal,” House Democrat leadership chose to make their top priority a so-called election reform bill, House Resolution 1. This bill seeks to drastically change the rules for elections to make it easier for Democrats to win. Speaker Pelosi and the Democrat leadership is really saying they do not want to talk about issues or try to win by having better policies or candidates, but bitter at losing elections, they want to change the rules.
Which brings us full circle. Will Democrats work on areas of bipartisan agreement, such as updating our aging infrastructure nationwide, or attempt to pass legislative priorities that actually matter to their base, such as the Green New Deal? Or will they continue to investigate and whine about the last election?
The answer this week will confirm the Democrats’ priorities. The Senate will vote on the Green New Deal this week and Senate Democrats are complaining. They do not want to talk about legislation or admit how radical their policies are.
Meanwhile, leading House Democrats are doubling down on investigations. After years of saying that the Mueller report will answer all questions about the 2016 election and that the Trump administration must be on hold pending the conclusion of the investigation, Democrats are now calling the Mueller report deficient and incomplete because after an exhaustive investigation, it did not find collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. It is yet another example of the modern Democratic Party not accepting results when they lose.
The Democrats truly are the party of sore losers.
Michael Thielen is executive director of the Republican National Lawyers Association.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.