When a Gesture Isn't Just Polite

In the process of settling a bet on post-election phone calls, Miss Manners makes the following important point:

The problem is that you both look at the call as a personal interaction, rather than a professional one. The reason the loser calls the winner is that it increases faith in the electoral process by having the loser acknowledge defeat, a relevant lesson in our time.

It is hardly surprising that in a time when too many Americans seem to have forgotten in what way our government is distinct, and why that difference matters, that lots of us see failure to make that call as merely rude.

It is not: It is negligent at best, and can indeed an attack, however small, on public confidence in the electoral process -- the hiring process, if you will -- by which we choose not our rulers, but the fellow citizens to whom we delegate the power of government.

We can all think of a particularly egregious example of someone failing spectacularly to acknowledge defeat. This person, and many others like him are not merely rude, or stubborn. They are dangerous, and must be stopped.

-- CAV