After night one of the Republican National Convention last night it’s clear that in 2020 we have two national parties engaged in the politics of apocalypse.

Last week, the Democrats told you that a Trump victory threatens the Constitution and democracy itself. Last night, the Republicans told you a Biden victory threatens to unleash violence and destroy Western Civilization itself.

I’m old enough to remember when a tough convention speech was based on the idea that the other party was a bunch of clowns with fuzzy headed policy ideas. This... is not that.

My question this morning is this: what happens when a party that believes the other side doesn’t just have bad policy ideas, but is an existential threat to the nation ... loses an election? Because one of these parties is going to lose.

The reason Democracy works is because the losers buy in. They believe it’s *basically* a fair process and the country will survive and they’ll have another chance in 4 years. But what if they don’t believe those things?

We spend a lot of time focusing on who will win the election and what they will do then. But I think we should also think about who will lose. And whether the winners can win in a way that still lets the losers buy in.