Pirate's Cove

Ever since the election results came in, Democrats have been the ultimate sore losers, and the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank has been a participant. He’s attempted to mansplain the woman card to Kellyanne Conway. He’s whined numerous times about Russia. He’s stated that the election was rigged. He’s essentially been a sore loser. Now we get

Trump gets no respect. That’s because he hasn’t earned it.

Kellyanne Conway is walking a Dangerfield line.

“We got no forbearance. We got nothing. We got no respect,” the Trump strategist told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last week, complaining about media coverage of her boss. “This man is president of the United States!”

Conway raises a fair question: Why hasn’t the president-elect been given more respect?

Here’s a fair answer: He hasn’t earned any.

It wouldn’t matter, because people like Milbank, 100% in the pocket of the Democratic Party, wouldn’t give any even if Trump was pushing Progressive issues and policies.

To Trump’s many self-assigned superlatives, he can now add another: the sorest winner. With charity for none and with malice toward all but his supporters, he has in the past two months set a new standard for gracelessness in victory.

What Milbank is upset about is that Trump is doing exactly what Democrats have been doing for decades: attacking. And, Trump is refusing to back down when attacked. Democrats in the media, meaning about 90% of those who work in the news media, expect Republicans to simply sit there and take it, saying nary a word. Which is what Republicans have been doing for decades.

The Republican base has pleaded with Republicans to fight back. No matter whether they are quiet or attack back, they are damned by the news media. So, they might as well attack back. George W. Bush almost never responded, to the point that his administration barely defended their own policies. It got to a point that GOP pundits became tired of attempting to defend what Bush wouldn’t.

Now, Trump is showing the Democrats and their compliant media that he’s willing to play their game, that he’s no patsy who will just sit there and take it with a grin. Trot out John Lewis and proclaim him off limits for things he did almost a half century ago? Trump doesn’t care. There will be no “ultimate moral authority” figures. You get back what you offer.

Get used to that. Trump knows the game, and, like him, hate him, agnostic about him, he won’t be sitting back while Democrats run roughshod.

The losers often have hard feelings after elections. But this much enmity from the winner is extraordinary. Trump, after his election-night promise to “bind the wounds of division” and be a “president for all Americans,” never attempted reconciliation. A day later, he falsely condemned “professional protesters, incited by the media,” and at year end he taunted opponents via Twitter: “Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do. Love!”

The tweet was lame, but, that’s Trump. Funny that Milbank had no complaints over Obama attacking citizens, saying “he won” to Republicans, castigating John McCain after the election, using the IRS to assault Conservative citizen groups, and never attempting to bring the country together. And let’s not forget all the allies and world leaders he insulted and threw under the bus.

If the Sore Losers want Trump to be a good winner, then they shouldn’t start things. As the ancient Tibetan Philosophy states “Don’t start none, won’t be none!

Crossed at Right Wing News.