This is a Letter to the Editor.
Once upon a time in America, a place famous for peanut butter, poorly made plastic chairs, and self-proclaimed greatness, people had something called elections. They were events where everyone (or nearly everyone, depending on who was allowed) picked their next leaders, ideally without throwing rocks at each other. Afterward, everyone shook hands and said, “Well, that’s that.”
This worked just fine until it didn’t.
Take 2020. That was the year the election turned into a Choose-Your-Own-Reality adventure. A man named Donald Trump lost. He did not like that, no sir. Losing was for suckers, like paying taxes or believing in gravity. So, he and his friends decided there must be a reason—not a boring reason like “more people voted for the other guy,” but something thrilling and sinister, like dead Venezuelans hacking voting machines or mailboxes conspiring against the Republic.
His supporters, dutiful as ever, believed him. A Pew Research Center poll found only 21% of Trump voters thought the election was well-run. The other 79% muttered things about fraud and eyed envelopes suspiciously. Trust in mail-in ballots—those devilish tools of democracy—was even worse, dropping to 19%.
But America is a forgiving place, and as with most things here, memory fades fast when the right people win.
Fast forward to 2024. The same Donald Trump, now a little older and no less orange, won the presidency again. Suddenly, Republicans—who four years earlier had been sweating bullets over stolen votes—declared the system was beautiful and perfect, like a sunset or a brand-new pair of cowboy boots. According to Pew, 93% of Trump voters now believed the elections were fair. Even mail-in ballots—once the devil’s stationery—were back in good graces, with 72% of Trump voters calling them trustworthy.
Funny how winning fixes everything.
This is not to say Democrats are saints. But when Joe Biden won in 2020, 95% of his supporters trusted the election. And when Kamala Harris—another Democrat, but a different name—lost in 2024, the number only dipped a little, to 84%. They weren’t thrilled, sure. Some sighed, some cried into craft beers, and some wrote stern letters to no one in particular. But for the most part, they believed the system worked—whether it worked for them or not.
It’s different when you lose, though. Losing makes people weird. They start seeing fraud everywhere—ballot boxes, mail carriers, Aunt Linda’s knitting group. Losing hurts, and humans, being famously fragile, don’t like to hurt.
So, when Republicans lose, elections are frauds. And when they win, democracy is glorious, majestic, and possibly sponsored by Coca-Cola. It’s a pattern as old as time: when we lose, the universe must be broken. When we win, the universe is fine and please don’t touch it.
But here’s the kicker: this kind of thinking is no good for anybody. Trust in elections is supposed to be like trust in clean drinking water. You can’t only believe in it when it tastes like soda. The moment trust becomes conditional—our side won, hooray; our side lost, burn it all down—democracy becomes just another thing we used to have, like Blockbuster or the Concorde.
And what’s next, you ask? Will Republicans trust the 2028 election if they lose? Will Democrats suddenly start screaming fraud? Who knows. Humans are funny creatures. They like fairness, except when it means they have to lose. Then they like conspiracy theories and YouTube videos made in basements.
As for America, it will keep bumbling forward, as it always does. Elections will keep happening, and people will keep saying the system is broken or perfect, depending on whether the confetti cannon pointed their way.
So it goes.
Maybe someday we’ll learn to trust the process, win or lose. Until then, we’ll pretend the system works only when it works for us. And if that’s not the most human thing ever, I don’t know what is.
Photo by Colin Lloyd
