Trump has spawned an era of sore losers who won’t accept defeat

I’ve never met actor LeVar Burton, but years ago, when he was still radiating heat from his history-making turn as Kunta Kinte in Roots and I was a copy boy for the Atlanta Constitution newspaper, he looked at me and said “S’up, man?”

It was in Mr. V’s Figure 8 Lounge, the hottest nightclub in Atlanta in 1980, and I was there chilling, digging the scene with a gangsta lean and no doubt doing a dance of my own creation.

The disc jockey abruptly interrupted my dance and the Gap Band’s Burn Rubber on Me to announce “Ladies and gentlemen, now entering Mr. V’s — LeVar Burton and entourage.”

Heads turned and a cheer went up from some of the revelers, but I was annoyed that the song stopped.

As Burton breezed imperially past, he looked at me, gave me the head nod and mouthed “S’up, man?”

If I have a chance to see him again, I’ll be the one asking “S’up, man?”

I’d then ask Burton, an engaging TV personality, why he is still steamed over being passed over for the job as permanent host of Jeopardy!

He claims that “the fix was in,” and it was, but the fix was for the problematic producer Mike Richards, not against LeVar. Scores of others could have done a better job than Richards, but since he was the show’s producer and anointed himself host, he was guaranteed to win.

Judging by his past work on Reading Rainbow, Burton would have been excellent as Alex Trebek’s successor on Jeopardy!

But: “What is ‘C’est la vie,’” Alex?

As Burton continued bellyaching over being passed over, rapper Lil Nas X was staging his own gripefest. Nas X was so angry at not being nominated for a BET Award that he unleashed the ultimate rapper’s attack on the network: he released a profane “dis” track.

Now, nevermind that 2021 saw Mr. Lil win just about every award imaginable. Why, you couldn’t pass a newsstand without seeing him staring out at you from a magazine cover.

He also gave a talked-about-for-a-week performance at the BET Awards last year.

Now, Lil and LeVar may be justified in their complaints. Lord knows, BET — which in its first 30 or so years stood for “Booties Every Time” because of the endless diet of nearly nekkid women it fed viewers in music videos — isn’t renowned for doing the right thing.

Again, though, whatever happened to accepting defeat graciously? Are we as a society at a point where every person who loses from now on will question the legitimacy of the results, will cry “foul,” will claim that the election was rigged?

Of course, some of you are asking “How can you ask such a question in a country still rent in two by a former president who won’t accept that he lost?”

Former President Trump is by no means the first politician to reject his or her defeat, but he has elevated not taking “no” to low art.

Why, when I lost my race for Rockingham City Council, no one heard me braying about a rigged election or questioning the integrity of election officials.

Of course, it would have been hard to contest an election in which you received 14 votes.

True grace is knowing how to accept defeat graciously even when you have a legitimate beef.

Al Gore, despite reasonable doubt about election integrity in Florida in 2000, realized that his winning the presidency was less important than America demonstrating to the rest of the world how we move on, even after a contentious election.

Even Richard Nixon, who lost by a rat’s toenail length to JFK in 1960, publicly appeared to graciously accept his painful defeat. Later accounts from people who worked with him say that behind the scenes, though, Nixon was encouraging efforts to question or overturn the results.

But at least he didn’t try to destroy the country, end democracy or send his followers to storm the Capitol.

Lil Nas, Levar, Trump, et al, when facing a result they don’t like, should remember the words of Mick Jagger, who said “You can’t always get what you want.”

Or of whoever said “If at first you don’t succeed — find out if the loser gets anything.”

But whatever you do, kwitcherbitchin’.

This story was originally published June 20, 2022 at 4:30 AM.