Even O. Henry could not have conceived this level of irony.
Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, a Democrat, said this week that Democrats must get over lost races and focus only on future prospects.
Not bad advice, really. But coming from the woman who has done little else but obsess over her loss to Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, it’s a bit much.
“We have to stop relitigating past elections and have to start planning for future elections,” Abrams said this week during an appearance at the University of New England, according to the Associated Press.
Democrats would be wise to follow her recommendation. Lord knows her party could benefit greatly from ridding itself of its embittered failures, such as failed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is pitifully determined to convince the world that she is the rightful president of the United States.
Or Abrams herself — who has yet to concede to Gov. Kemp.
Abrams claimed 12 times in the six months after she lost her election that she had actually won, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis. Abrams told New York Times Magazine in April 2019, “I won.” Abrams has also gone on national television to argue that the race was “stolen” from her.
Abrams lost by 54,723 votes in an election year that saw voter turnout in Georgia increase by an estimated 2.5 million from the last midterm election cycle. Abrams’s campaign team said in 2018 that it could prove the election was stolen. They have yet to make good on that promise. And frankly, they have no case to make.
The only reason Abrams is still a player in American politics is that she lost an election that she and her supporters in the news media are determined to relitigate perpetually. So Abrams is not wrong when she says Democrats need to move on from losses. Democrats should do as she says, not as she does.
