“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it means to sit down and listen” - often misattributed to Churchill source unknown.
It’s the morning after the night before, and the votes have been counted. Maybe your chosen candidate didn’t win this time. I know many people have felt this way after recent elections, and some may feel it now.
Today's blog is about how to digest and thrive even though you are unhappy with the result.
The people have spoken
First and foremost, to truly embrace democracy, we must accept the outcome of the vote as a core part of its value. This isn’t always easy, but it’s essential.
The value of democracy is reaching all voters in their own unique circumstances and worldviews. Everyone, you included, has been given a chance to express our opinion through a vote and those who choose to get to sway the vote their way.
Elections are messy. Whether it is accepting money with strings, showing undue favour to certain special interest groups, media bias and manipulation or corruption of candidate selection processes, there will always be a whiff of perceived impropriety, and people on all sides will mostly feel that the other side has has more of it.
Rational minds, different votes
In accepting the result, let’s avoid demonizing the other side. Dismissive labels like ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ or ‘Basket of Deplorables’ only stifle honest, open debate. Labels kill nuance. I believe the name-calling to be arrogant and unhelpful.
So why might two rational, sensible people vote for different parties? To me it boils down to:
Priorities
Perspective
Trade-offs
Priorities
With so many issues at stake—economy, healthcare, education, taxes—most people prioritize one or two. Emotional resonance often guides these priorities, as people simplify based on what feels most urgent or personal. Whilst we see emotions as irrational weakness, in highly complex decisions, it tends to play an important role. I think it is important we are honest about that. It can be that we agree on which party is better on which policy area, but disagree on which ones matter the most.
Over and above policies, there is then the ability of the candidates and their team. Can the candidate execute on things? Will they represent us well on the world stage? Will they be able to handle unexpected crises? For some people this is more important than the policies themselves, and invest largely in moral character or real-life ability to get things done.
Perspective
People’s perspectives are shaped by their upbringing, experiences, and information sources. Different starting perspectives mean rational people can relate to the same policies very differently. Some commonly debated examples are wealth inequality, immigration, climate change, the criminal justice system, gun control. Perspective matters.
Trade-offs
Rarely will a party tick all of your boxes from a policy or candidate perspective. At that point you need to make trade-offs. This is tough unless we are trying to optimise for something. Each of us can have completely different goals we are trying to optimise for:
Britain to be better for tax payers next year
Britain to be better for the bottom half in 20years
Each of these approaches will have radically different policies and so two people can agree on what is most important and which party is better, but take a different time horizon.
So where does that leave us?
After the initial disappointment, we have choices on how to respond constructively:
Criticize the process/voters: Criticizing the opposition isn’t productive. As we’ve discussed, labeling others is both arrogant and distracting.
Roll with it: The world still has opportunities for you—many of which are unaffected by political changes. Remove political disappointment from the equation and focus on thriving.
Reflect and improve: The debate is settled... for now. If you’re passionate about making a difference, reflect honestly on what didn’t work this time and start preparing for the next election. After all, that’s what the other side has been doing too.
So what?
If the result did not go your way, the first step must be to accept the outcome without resorting to demonising or labelling. Democracy is a messy process, and for those of us that wish to protect it, we must appreciate its elegant finality.
Two sensible people could vote for a candidate that the other one finds appalling through having different priorities, perspectives and making different trade-offs. It is arrogant to think that everyone feels the same way we do.
Whilst criticising the result is an unhelpful distraction, a positive way forward is to try and seize great opportunities that are unaffected by the outcome or start reflecting on what could make a better campaign next time.
Next week I will be discussing "KPIs for governments". Until then, please feel free to read the back catalogue in the democracy series.
Democracy series
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