Don Walton: We should all accept the results of this election | Government-and-politics

So, a few more weeks.

Let’s vote and find out who is the winner; whether the results will be accepted by all parties; what the hell if they aren’t; whether we are going to face prolonged agony in the courts or worse yet on the streets; or if we can just move on.

It wasn’t like that.

The election results were accepted; the losers called the winners to congratulate them. And life went on.

There was of course an unstable presidential election in 2000 and Al Gore ultimately accepted a United States Supreme Court ruling that abruptly ended the ongoing recount of contested votes in Florida, where George’s margin of victory was W. Bush was as thin as paper. .

The court was divided along ideological or political lines. And then quickly added some sort of disclaimer that the ruling didn’t set a precedent.

Judge John Paul Stevens, in a dissenting opinion, sounded the alarm: “While we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s presidential election, the identity of the loser. is perfectly clear.

“It is the nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.”