GOOKIN: Be good sport

Our American Republic demands high standards of both citizens and their elected officials. One duty of citizenship is to respect the legitimacy of the electoral process, recognizing that in our system the moral right to rule comes from the consent of the governed. Civic virtue demands a period of healing after the partisan combat of the campaign. In this “honeymoon period,” we all are called to come together as Americans and recognize that whatever divides us is less significant than what unites us. We are supposed to wish the newly elected officials the very best of fortune in bearing our shared trust to manage our public business.

This tradition distinguishes us from diverse kleptocracies and dictatorships masquerading as “Republics.” We have been well-served by generations of active citizens swallowing factional pride and shame to reunite as one people. Such humility and fidelity to our Constitution’s values bring out the best in us.

Dan Gookin’s recent column, bashing County Clerk Jim Brannon for discovering and resolving missing ballots, as well as cleaning up a personnel problem in the Elections Bureau, violates this tradition. Gookin is continuing his campaign of personal invective and petty innuendo against Brannon, which earned him a well-deserved rebuke from the voters last November. Rather than exhibit grace and good sportsmanship in defeat, he is emulating the irreconcilable spirit of “Gore-Lieberman 2000,” as well as those who in 2017 refused to give our president any honeymoon period. As Heraclitus once said, “Character is destiny.”

RALPH K. GINORIO

Coeur d’Alene