Member-only story
On Conceding an Election
The year 2020
Imagine playing a board game with your family. Your brother, a known cheater, comes in second despite using unscrupulous tactics. Your senile dad, a little too touchy-feely at times, is the winner. But your brother shouts, “I won! You didn’t win! I won!”
You know he didn’t win, but he proclaims victory and in your heart of hearts, you believe he should have won because you just think the world of him. He has always been unafraid to say what’s on his mind. He calls people out on their BS. You admire that.
Suddenly, your brother’s rhetoric changes some and he starts saying things like, “Senile Dad didn’t win! He cheated! We all know it!” You start to believe this because, God knows why, you absolutely worship your brother.
A few weeks later, you and your friends crash Mom and Dad’s important dinner party with their friends, yelling that your brother was the winner of the board game that night. “He won! He won!”
Things turn chaotic, furniture is smashed, the police are called, and in an effort to quell the mayhem one of your friends is killed by police and a few others die of injuries sustained during the effort made to restore order. Meanwhile, your odious brother is hiding out in his bedroom playing Minecraft.
When all of the dust clears, your brother comes out to say a few words to everyone but mostly laments about how he was screwed over at family game night. “Everyone knows I won.”
The next day, you reflect on your actions to storm your parents’ dinner party, for a guy who only cares about himself and winning. You think of your dead friends.
You ask yourself, was it all worth it in the end?
