Thursday, October 20, 2016

The “Accepting Election Results” Question – A Sad Commentary

The media has been infatuated with Trump’s response to the question of “Would he accept the results of the election”? His answer at the time was that “I will tell you at the time”. Now since then the Clinton campaign, a variety of Republican Congress-members, and the media have been aghast at Trump for disgracing America’s democratic principle of a ‘peaceful transition of power’ from the incumbent President to the newly elected President. Almost immediately after the debate, the Trump campaign surrogates (including his daughter) have been explaining what he meant.
To be honest, it is hard to view anyone engaged in this farce as individuals the public should be listening to, let alone voting for them or their candidate; and the media has fumbled the issue from night one.

While the tumult that Trump’s answer has produced is unworthy of an American candidate to create and subsequently promote or allow the misguided notion that the nation’s citizens should not accept the results of the election. Additionally, the real issue with Trump’s answer is that it does not come close to what someone asking to be President should have stated. I don’t mean that he should just have said, “Yes” but rather that if he wanted to make a point then it was incumbent upon him to make a clear and informative answer that defines and clarifies why he isn’t saying yes.  An executive, a leader, and certainly a president must be able and competent at presenting information and positions that are highly likely to be understood and that inform those they direct and those they work for (the public). Trump’s answer failed at that, his campaign’s surrogates failed at that, the subsequent ‘clarifications’ and ‘explanations’ have been forced and inadequate.

Now don’t get all ‘I’m an anti-Trump type’; because Clinton and her campaign surrogates didn’t recognize the problem for what it was either. This is a different area of failure for an executive, leader, president to have. Clinton’s response was condemning the statement as “horrifying”; rather than recognizing it as a mistake on her opponent’s part and seizing the opportunity before the ‘statement’ gets mitigated. Now having missed the immediate opportunity there seems to be no comprehension on the part of the Clinton campaign to how to maximize the damage that Trump has provided to his own campaign. If a savvy executive thought Trump’s answer was ‘horrifying’ than they would have used the moment to show Trump’s statement as coming from a candidate who speaks carelessly which allows him to be played. Not the image a leader would want illustrated to the public. The public expects Clinton to object to Trump and his views, but the public is influenced when Clinton demonstrates that she can put him back on his heels.

As for the media, the best that can be said is that they recognized that there was another ‘sensational’ news story to hash over and over; but they didn’t demonstrate any ability to frame the discussion to its substance, or to fulfill their duty to ‘inform the public’. The news media persists in the importance of presenting the facts (the truth) but without including the context and clarity of the topic, the media neglects whether they provide the public with an ability to comprehend the truth. Trump’s statement represents a ‘fact’ of what he said (what his words were) but that alone doesn’t insure that anyone, even Mr. Trump, understands what he just said. If this were the only time that the media underperformed it would be a forgivable rare event; but it isn’t rare. It isn’t rare for issues with Trump. It isn’t rare for issues with Clinton. It isn’t rare in any context.


 Consider the statement Trump made. He wasn’t willing to say if he would accept the results of the election. Why is it Trump’s position on the results that matter? What about the view that the voters have about what they decided, is that irrelevant? Is there any constitutional, legal or any requirement for the losing candidate to concede?  It may be traditional, honorable and demonstrate a degree of maturity; but it is unnecessary.  The election process will record a winner whether the loser accepts the fact or not.