Democrats showed Republicans how to transfer power. Will the GOP learn? | Opinion
Republicans need to do a lot to restore faith in their ability to handle an election loss. The peaceful and civil transfer of power is vital to our republic, and both sides would be wise to do it.
Four years after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a joint session of Congress convened on Monday to certify Donald Trump's electoral victory in the 2024 election.
With Vice President Kamala Harris presiding, Congress gave Trump the civil transfer of power he denied President Joe Biden following the 2020 election. Instead, a violent mob stormed the Capitol following Trump's insistence the election was somehow stolen from him.
Most Americans probably haven’t thought about it, but we've reached a point where having a peaceful power transfer is a big thing. I have plenty of negative things to say about Democrats and their actions over the past four years, but they conducted themselves properly after losing the election. We need more of that.
The state of American politics is disappointing
It's shameful that turbulence, or its expectation, is now common whenever we change administrations.
I began paying attention to politics in high school, during the campaign that eventually elevated Trump to the White House in 2016. This election marks the first time in several elections that the losing party hasn't challenged the results in some way.
In 2020, Trump declared that the election was somehow stolen by Democrats, kicking off a widespread election denial movement within the GOP, eventually resulting in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. That denialism remains in the Republican Party and was heard throughout Trump's presidential campaign.
However, this wasn’t the beginning of contested elections in modern-day politics. The reality that Democrats don’t want to hear is that they were the first to deny election results. While it didn’t result in a violent attempt to overturn the election, Democratic leadership called Trump an “illegitimate president” following his 2016 win.
I would argue those kinds of statements from Democrats helped seed Trump's rampant election denial effort.
Democrats acted admirably after their 2024 loss
Despite all their flaws and past missteps during the campaign, Democrats were able to hand the presidency back to Trump in a civil manner despite an election strategy that focused on painting Trump as a tyrant and wannabe dictator and their rhetoric that Trump is a threat to American democracy.
Now, the ball is in the Republicans’ court.
It's easy to be civil during a power transfer when you are taking control. However, the real test of whether Republicans can allow the election denial to be left in the past will be when Democrats win their next election.
Until now, Trump has made it entirely clear that peace is not his primary concern. His return to the White House is rooted in revenge, and he has made it clear that those who supposedly rigged the 2020 election are in his crosshairs.
“We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” said Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel.
Trump gearing his second White House administration up for a revenge tour does little to instill confidence that they will be as civil in loss as they are in victory.
Republicans need to do a lot to restore faith in their ability to handle an election loss. Americans will have to wait at least four years for the GOP to prove that they can do what Democrats did this week.
The peaceful and civil transfer of power is vital to our republic, and both sides would be wise to engage in such behavior.
Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for Paste BN and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.