It has become something of a tradition: a liberal candidate loses a presidential election and thousands of people lose their minds. They surge through the streets smashing and burning. It is thought necessary to offer grief counselling to school children, to help them not get over the grotesque and frightening behavior of the protesters but to face the horrible fact that their favored candidate was beaten. Several celebrities ponder emigrating to Canada, but sadly none seems ever to do so.

It happened in 2000, when George W. Bush beat Al Gore, and again in 2004 when he defeated John Kerry. Liberals from Manhattan to Maui were aghast, and the American Health Association released a list of symptoms for what it called “post-election selection trauma,” or PEST, which includes feelings of withdrawal, isolation, anger and bitterness.