Joseph Sabino Mistick: Time for Trump to accept his loss

Most times when you lose an election, that’s all there is to it — you lost. You are not alone, because the arithmetic in a two-party system means that about half of the candidates in a general election lose, but it still catches some candidates by surprise to be a loser. And it hurts at least a little — no matter who you are.

Donald Trump said as much when he stopped by to thank his campaign staff in Virginia before the polls closed on Election Day. “Winning is easy. Losing is never easy. Not for me it’s not,” he said. And since that night, we have been reminded of just how hard it is for him.

Trump’s defeat has become a national political passion play. At various times, he has railed against the media, accusing reporters of being unfair and mean to him by asking tough questions. It’s hard to square that delicate sensitivity with his reputation as a hard-nosed New York City real estate guy. When Trump’s critics complain about his mean behavior, his supporters ridicule them and call them “snowflakes.”

In the spirit of the French Revolution — without the guillotine — Trump has purged his administration of traitors to his cause, including some top officials. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was tweet-fired after pushing back on a number of the president’s ideas, including activating troops to police American streets. And election cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs was tweet-fired after saying that “the Nov. 3 election was the most secure in American history.”

Trump claims that the election was fixed, which is the last refuge of politicians who cannot believe that they have been beaten fair and square. Without any evidence, he has cited “massive improprieties and fraud — including dead people voting, poll watchers not allowed into polling locations, ‘glitches’ in the voting machines that changed votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more.” The courts already have tossed nearly all of these claims.

Rudyard Kipling, in his poem “If,” wrote about how important it is to “meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same.” That always reminds me of my friend, the late William Caroselli, a renowned trial lawyer with a passion for justice and keen political instincts.

We were from the same old mill towns east of Pittsburgh, and he was my first supporter when I ran for a statewide judgeship nearly 30 years ago. I won the primary, and Billy insisted that we have lunch the next day at the front table of a popular Downtown restaurant. “You never know if a moment like this will come again,” he said.

And six months later, the morning after I lost the general election, Billy called for lunch again. Battered and bruised, looking to lay low, I tried to beg off, but at noon we were at that same front table at the busiest joint in town. “Win or lose, it’s all the same,” he said. “The election’s over, and you have to get back to living your life.”

With that, I was over it. And what Trump needs now is a pal like Billy Caroselli.