A few weeks ago, I wrote about my experience during my bike ride when I was unable to continue bike riding due to Achilles tendonitis. One of the remedies is rest. I was upset that I would not be able to bike on Sunday for a few weeks. Right after that happened, for the first time I can recall, three Sundays in a row I went to a bris. I would not have ridden on July 17 because of Shiv’a Asar b’Tamuz, a fast day. I most likely would have wanted to go biking on the other two Sundays if not for the injury. Then I would have been in the position to choose between going to the bris or a ride that I had signed up for. My inability to ride made the choice to go to the bris easy. It is just another example of when something occurs that appears to be upsetting, it ends up being for the best because that is Hashem’s plan. Meanwhile, I bought bike shoes and have slowly started to ride again.
On to my main topic. The country has become full of sore losers. The claim that Trump won the election has been debunked by the courts, the officials from the states in question, and government officials such as the Attorney General downward. One of the important parts of the House January 6 Committee’s focus was to show the breadth of individuals who investigated and rejected the claims of election fraud. Also, state election officials were able to address various conspiracy theories and show how ridiculous they were. Just this past week, a report came out from former Republican officials and judges reiterating that the election was properly held. The title of the report was “LOST, NOT STOLEN: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election.”
However, many in the country would rather believe the pillow guy or other quacks who have come up with various claims. They are just like Trump. They cannot accept the fact that he lost. Instead of coming to grips with reality, they delude themselves with outlandish claims, looking for something to justify their position.
Trump and his supporters are not the only ones whining about his loss. There are various Republicans who lost primaries who claim irregularities. The best known is Tina Peters, the Mesa County Clerk who was arrested and indicted relating to information on voting machines that she illegally provided to third parties. She was one of the election deniers. She got trounced in the primary for Secretary of State. She could not accept that maybe Republicans don’t want a person who is an election denier and engages in illegal conduct relating to elections become the top official overseeing elections in Colorado.
This sore loser mentality is not limited to Trumpians. Some on the left have called the Supreme Court illegitimate after the abortion ruling because they were upset with the outcome. One individual on MSNBC who has his own show argued that the Supreme Court’s ruling was undemocratic because the senators who voted for the three new judges confirmation came from states made up of less than 50% of the population of the entire country. I guess he missed his class on American government. The House of Representatives is based on the population of each state, while each state in the Senate has two representatives no matter the population. That was to make sure that the big states do not control the country. That is why you can have a situation where the senators who vote on a particular item may be the majority in numbers of senators and yet their states make up less than 50% of the country’s population. Other progressives want to pack the Court.
Both sides must stop whining. Trump lost because some people who voted for him four years earlier became tired of his antics. The three conservatives who were the key vote to overturn Roe came from Republican-majority senates. The president doesn’t appoint the Supreme Court. The Senate does. The Republican Party was able to convince voters in those states to support their candidates. The Democratic Party, especially the progressives, should do some self-reflection about why people are rejecting their candidates. Many of their polices are not supported by the people in many states. There is a country between the coasts.
As individuals, some of us are guilty of making the same calculations. It is never our fault. We cannot be wrong about anything. If things do not work out the way we want them to, it has nothing to do with anything wrong that we have done. Someone else is to blame.
Those who can look in the mirror both as individuals or as part of group and realistically judge themselves can change and improve. Those who want to blame others and feel that they are the victim will never change and will be stuck in the world of self-delusion and self-pity.
We as a country and individuals need to move on from the sore loser mentality.
Warren S. Hecht is a local attorney. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.