A peaceful transition of power is essential
A political lifetime ago I was lucky enough to take a small part in America’s ongoing demonstration of leadership in the free world. Bill Clinton, for whom I campaigned, had defeated incumbent George H.W. Bush in the 1992 election. As a staffer on the campaign and subsequent transition team, it was a great place to be young and help push a bit on the wheels of democracy.
The truly heroic act of leadership was not provided by the incoming president, but as has been the case for more than two centuries, by the outgoing one. Bush’s letter to Clinton, a private note expressing hope for his successor’s good fortune, left no doubt he understood the process of handing over the presidency was greater than himself. Eight years later after a hotly contested election with real issues regarding ballots, Clinton provided the same selfless leadership in welcoming George W. Bush.
Make no mistake: Elections are rough and transitions emotional. Losing is never easy. These are serious, driven and intelligent people. Humphrey and Stevenson, Hoover and Teddy Roosevelt, Adams and Jefferson all fill this roster. And yet every one, even those whose claim to a contested election was much more credible than the current incumbent, understood the nation’s need above their own. These tough, determined competitors put the country before themselves by initiating the quiet miracle that really makes America exceptional — the acceptance of the public verdict and the peaceful transfer of power.
This act forms the bedrock of the free world. The tradition of peacefully conceding power after votes has spread through the modern world, but the process in America still drives the global commitment to democracy and sets the example others follow. The truth of this is apparent in the stabilization of global relationships, events and markets upon the acceptance and announcement of a U.S. presidential transition. More than military might or economic prosperity, the simple act of conceding that the voters have spoken is the North Star by which we navigate, and by which we earn the trust of the world that follows us. It is the foundation on which might and prosperity rest, not the other way around.
Tyrants cannot conceive of the act of giving up power to their fiercest rival at the behest of their citizens, or sometimes even to allow any rival to live. There will be no peaceful acknowledgement of public will in Russia, Syria or North Korea. Their dictators make empty gestures of intrigue without any understanding of real power, “strongmen” with no strength. Even China, a colossus driven by the vast industry of its people and guided by thousands of years of civilization, will never have the global leadership it covets until its leaders acknowledge the will of its citizens.
Today, in the wake of a decisive election here at home, the loser’s supporters balk at accepting the will of the people. Instead they persuade themselves that legitimate opposition is some sort of fraud. They bolster the claims of tyrants around the world that democracy is false by openly voicing that only their own victories are legitimate.
They have chosen this path — suppression, resistance and subversion — rather than earn the public trust, and they have fought against democracy itself. And democracy has won. Because in the end, as first conceived by George Washington, who could have taken an old-world throne but birthed a modern presidency, and understood by Poppy, Barack and Bill, by Ike and Teddy, by Jefferson and Adams, and every leader who gives way to his duly elected opponent, our democracy and the simple miracle of peaceful transition of power is greater and larger than they. It will live on, and those small, desperate men resisting it or hiding from their duty to defend it will be forgotten footnotes to history.
Tim Wilkins
The tradition of peacefully conceding power after votes has spread through the modern world, but the process in America still drives the global commitment to democracy and sets the example others follow.