Between 1972 and 2016, twelve different people — George McGovern, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, Al Gore, John Kerry, John McCain and Mitt Romney — ran for president of the United States as a major-party nominee and lost.

We can safely assume that it hurt like all hell for every last one of them — especially the few of them who lost in a landslide. But every one managed to take it with dignity, with no complaints made (at least none in public) and no overt demonstrations of grief. A number of them remained active in politics; John McCain and John Kerry went back to their day jobs and had some of the best years of their lives. Their supporters may have mourned and complained, but they too got over it. They did not put on hats shaped like testicles and hold tempestuous rallies, in which their supporters from Nashville and Hollywood called for the White House to be blown up with the victor inside it, who then should be whipped in the street.