Ignominy is a state of shame or disgrace. This condition is found in nearly all aspects of life. Many people in business, entertainment, athletics, academics, and science have suffered this malaise, everyone except the reality averse.
The only place where no one ever experiences this humiliation is politics, where there is no such thing as disgraceful conduct or any sense of shame. Where there is no dignity, there can be no disgrace.
Losing an election is no crime. Many qualified candidates and many more very unqualified seekers of elective office have fallen short. The act of defeat is not in and of itself disgraceful, although it is often distasteful.
Former President Richard Nixon responded to defeat by telling the press, “You don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.” As with so many politicians, Nixon’s statement wasn’t exactly true. He subsequently returned for more kicking, succeeding in obtaining the office of president twice. Proving spite is a greater motivator than defeat.
How one handles defeat reveals character. Learning the lessons of loss and returning stronger and invigorated for the fight are positive reactions. Denying it or blaming others for it is shameful conduct.
The lessons of defeat are lost on the political class. Lessons of loss are reserved for common men and women who face the hard realities of life head on, not from the back of a limousine or aboard a private jet.
Rocked by the storms of life, we persevere as there is no other choice. Deprived of reality politicians neither suffer, nor succeed, in meaningful ways.
Straw men and women, for whom the very lightest puff of wind would blow them out like a candle, sit in ivory halls hurling bolts of blather about the vicissitudes of life faced by the “average American”.
How would they know what we suffer or what we want? They do not suffer, and they do not ask.
In modern politics, the Democrat party has created a parallel world in which up is down, left is right, good is evil, boys are girls and defeat is victory. Occupying such an alternative reality doesn’t require rose-colored glasses because they’re blind.
In November, two victories in blue states, Virginia and New Jersey led to claims of a “blue wave” and that these wins were harbingers for the upcoming 2026 mid-term elections.
Since 1982 Virgina has had eight Democrat governors and only four Republicans. Spanberger’s win is neither anomalous nor groundbreaking, but rather politics as usual. In New Jersey only one of the Garden State’s last six governors have been Republican.
The claim that either of these Democrat victories means anything beyond the boundaries of these states is ridiculous. When the outcome is as expected Democrats treat it as though it were a surprise. Only in their upside-down world could the ordinary become extraordinary.
Aftyn Behn’s run for congress in Tennessee is in keeping with Democrat delusion, as it has now become the reverse of its actual outcome, insisting she is the victor not the vanquished.
The special election’s results have Dems and the press making a claim of triumph despite Behn’s loss to Republican Matt Van Epps. They assert her loss is a sign of fracture in Trump’s base and signals mid-term madness for Republicans. In defeat they proclaim victory.
How is it possible that the diametrically opposed outcomes in New Jersey and Virgina versus that in Tennessee can mean the same thing? Only a group of people who believe a dress changes a dude into a woman would draw such an inverse conclusion.
For her part, Behn doesn’t seem to understand. In her call, purportedly to congratulate Van Epps on his victory, she instead used it as time to provide instruction, “I called the Congressman-elect, Matt Van Epps, and I had one question for him. What will define what happens next? Do not let the Affordable Care Act subsidies expire. Do not raise health care costs for working families in Tennessee.”
The loser tells the winner how to do his job, just another byproduct of the Left’s war on reality. Van Epps should have said, “Tonight’s results preclude me from taking any advice you might offer.”
Behn is the perfect image of Democrat dissonance, a candidate that hates the biggest city in her district, hates bridesmaids, and hates country music and yet still thought she’d win. How? Why?
Van Epps won by nine percentage points, a spread just shy of what is often referred to as a “landslide”. Yet Democrats, and their minions in the press, are talking as though Behn won.
They claim her defeat signals victory in 2026. If defeat portends victory in the future where are all those Buffalo Bill Super Bowl Trophies?
The disgrace of Behn and Democrats is in how they conduct themselves in pursuit of power, not necessarily in their unwillingness to accept defeat. Behn used the word “hate” to describe her district and some of the people in it. Democrats hate all who disagree with them but think they’re hiding it under a banner of tolerance.
The Left has tremendous tolerance for anyone with whom they agree. For those who disagree they use such tolerant terms of description such as fascist, nazi, racist and homophobe. Only for them is Behn a “winner”.
Hopefully, someday those in politics, especially those on the Left, will re-acquire a conscience and with it a sense of shame. We must reject and defeat their attack on reality, of reversing truth into lies and defeats into victories.
Until then we’ll just have to be ashamed on their behalf.
Stephen Piccirillo © 2025
