The Sting of Defeat

It wasn’t a great night in our house last night! As we sat there eating popcorn and watching the election results come in from around the country, my kids, husband and I kept tally of how we fared on the passage of issues we supported and the election or re-election of people we supported. At a local level we fared ok. Several of the candidates we wanted elected to our school board won. Also, I was delighted that a college friend of mine not only won his bid for City Council but was the top vote getter and so will also be Council President.

Despite those wins, as a whole we didn’t do well in terms of passage of issues and election of candidates we supported at both the national and local level although my oldest son fared the best in our household in terms of success on the issues and people he supported. [NOTE: We didn’t all support the same issues and people but everyone was encouraged to determine where they stood on the various people and issues]. The loss of Jon Corzine in New Jersey wasn’t great news for me but the election results from Virginia were (yes we are a family of Independents!) and the 23rd district in New York was a shocker. It was expected the conservative would win in a district that has been conservative for more than 100 years.

For each of us, we lost more than we won. For my two sons, who play sports and are very competitive, losing even in politics is not fun. Nevertheless, the losses at the local and national level provided a great opportunity to discuss winning and losing with my sons and how sometimes what matters most is participation. This is an important lesson because often many people become disenchanted with the process if they sustain too many losses or feel like things never break their way, and I wanted them to understand that in the world of politics, there will be plenty of times in their lifetimes that things won’t go their way but never give up on the process. Despite the losses, the night overall was a success as my 7 year old son noted: the popcorn was great! Indeed, it was and so was the opportunity to help my sons understand their role in the process.

How was election night for you? What did you think about the results?