The victors will be all smiles with glasses raised on election night. They will go on to hold office, make policy and exert leadership.

Those who lose their elections will see their dreams dashed. They will lick their wounds and move onto other pursuits. Or plot a future comeback.

Yet the functioning of our democracy depends as much on those who run and strike out as on those who emerge triumphant. For every election winner, there is a loser, sometimes more than one. That is the essential nature of the enterprise.

The point of this column is to offer praise and credit to those who fall short, and who do so with the elemental grace long a core part of our political system.

Remember those days?

Over the life of our republic, with only the rarest of exceptions, those who have lost elections, even high-stakes one, have comported themselves with dignity. They have put state or country, along with continuity, ahead of personal pique, disappointment and occasionally even suspicion.

Especially at this juncture, the concession speech is of far more importance than the victory statement. Over the years, we have been treated to some elegant ones.

14 years ago, Barack Obama’s election success made for an historic picture in front of multitudes in Chicago’s Grant Park. Though his words on the occasion were unremarkable and soon forgotten.

Conversely, John McCain’s words live on from the night that saw his presidential ambitions forever dashed.

“In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his (Obama’s) success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans, who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president, is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.”

McCain went on with eloquent words to the meaning of the country having finally, belatedly elevated a Black man to the highest office.

He continued: “Sen. Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt, many of those differences remain. I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face… It is natural tonight to feel some disappointment, but tomorrow we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again.”

Not bad, at all.

In 1960, Richard Nixon lost the presidency to John F. Kennedy by a meager 112,827 votes or roughly two-tenths of a percent of the vote total. The paranoia that ultimately brought Nixon down may not have been wholly without basis given shenanigans in Cook County, Illinois as well as remote parts of Texas. He had far more legitimate reason to suspect fraud than the empty, trumped-up charges of more recent years.

Still, Nixon swallowed deeply and made a statement late on election night: “If the present trend continues, Mr. Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, will be the next president of the United States… If he does become our next president, he will have my wholehearted support and yours, too.”

Nixon formally conceded the race with a telegram to Kennedy the following afternoon.

Then there was the year 2000 and what was essentially a tie race that came down to 537 disputed votes in Florida out of nearly six million cast in the state. Following contentious recounts and the infamous case of Bush v. Gore, Texas Governor George W. Bush ultimately prevailed.

Within hours of the Supreme Court ruling, Gore, the sitting vice president, racked by letdown, looked into the cameras and offered: “I say to President-elect Bush that what remains of partisan rancor must now be put aside, and may God bless his stewardship of this country. Neither he nor I anticipated this long and difficult road. Certainly, neither of us wanted it to happen. Yet it came, and now it has ended, resolved, as it must be resolved, through the honored institutions of our democracy.”

In the 2016 upset of all presidential upsets, Hillary Clinton, having failed to shatter the glass ceiling after all but measuring the Oval Office drapes, still managed the next morning to speak into the microphone: “Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans.”

Whatever those words may have lacked in warmth or conviction, their mere utterance spoke volumes.

All of which brings us to where we are and what 2020 begot. Suddenly, tragically, it is now in vogue and somehow acceptable in various circles to withhold a concession. Stacey Abrams did herself and her country no favors by refusing to concede the 2018 contest for Georgia’s governor. We will see if she can muster that honor come Tuesday.

Then came Donald Trump’s planned, calculated, categorically selfish refusal to acknowledge defeat and all that ensued in that aftermath. The floodgates were officially opened.

Now we have Arizona gubernatorial nominee and television pixie Kari Lake threatening to only accept the election results if they tilt in her direction. How magnanimous of her.

Proving Trump’s capacity for leadership or some such thing, too many other high-level Republican candidates are taking a similar tack.

None of this leads to any good or sustainable place. In years long past, as I would meet with prominent types contemplating a race for this or that office, my first question often would be, “Can you handle a loss?”

That seems so quaint now, as the question has become, “Can you acknowledge defeat and refrain from fomenting violence?”

Jared Polis or Heidi Ganahl, Michael Bennet or Joe O’Dea, Yadira Caraveo or Barbara Kirkmeyer, the burden in not that many hours will be on some of you. Do you have it in yourself to stand up and own that the voters of your beloved state preferred your opponent?

Colorado will be watching and the entire country requires that customary, stabilizing, healing balm.

Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. He writes regularly for Colorado Politics and the Gazette newspapers. Reach him at?EWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann