Not long ago, my wife and I worked in a few local political campaigns. Most of what we did was phone work. One of our candidates won, the rest didn't.
At the election night party for our candidate for the US House of Representatives, an insight struck me. The candidate, fine man I had known for many years came to the party knowing he had lost. He was brave, he smiled, he conversed gamely with these many people who had worked so hard to elect him. It reminded me of the wife of one of the other candidates, the one who won. When her husband lost an election for another office, a state-wide office, I wanted to encourage them to run again, and she looked warningly at me and said, "NO! I'm never going through that again!"
It's hard work running for office. It's grueling. It's putting your guts through a meat grinder.
And that night I realized that it's absolutely necessary for the continuance of democracy. People have to run for office. Somebody has to lose. There has to be a choice, or there is no democracy.
I've always thought Mitt Romney a good man with the ability to serve. I think he did a pretty good job as Governor or Massachussetts. I thought his dad a good man. I remember his abortive run for the Presidency in 1968. I never had doubts that George Romney was a good and capable man.
Several years ago, The United Methodist Church commissioned a study of a controversial topic. After some years of work the commission concluded it couldn't come up with a definite conclusion. The report was derided by people on both sides of the issue (usually a pretty good indicator that you've done a good job, by the way). The introduction to the report had a phrase that changed my life: It said, "people of good will on both sides of this issue..." People of good will on both sides. I realized that nobody on either side wanted to destroy United Methodism. People on each side sincerely wanted to help. They all believe themselves to be fighting for God's will, and for the benefit of our denomination.
Fundamentally, nobody on either side of this ugly political chasm wants to see the United States of America destroyed. Fundamentally, we all want what is best for the nation we love. Fundamentally, we disagree on what is best, and we disagree on how to achieve her ultimate best welfare. But we are not traitors. We are not disloyal. We are Americans. We are patriots.
And this morning, the morning after this awful, acrimonious election, I honor Governor Mitt Romney. He fought hard. He endured much. No one will ever know how much this election cost him, and I am not talking about money. Today he joins a list of honorable people, dating back to Thomas Jefferson's loss to John Adams in 1796. This list includes such remarkable public servants as John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Gen. Winfield Scott, Stephen A. Douglas, William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, Al Smith, and Adlai Stevenson. Some would come back to win another day. Some never ran again. But all labored with unimaginable toil to promote democracy. Good, bad, right or wrong, they have made our democracy possible.
I honor them all. Thank you, Governor Romney.
