The Legacy of Losers
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 3:04PM
Americans like underdogs, but love winners. Losers are relegated to history's dustbin. At least until Portlander Scott Farris turned back the dusty pages and showed presidential losers may have had as much or more impact on the future as the victors.
In Almost President, Farris traces the legacies of losers dating back to Henry Clay, who lost in bitter contests to Andrew Jackson while espousing a nationalist vision of America, and the relatively recent past of Barry Goldwater and George McGovern, who suffered humiliating landslide losses, but changed the face and moral compass of the Republican and Democratic parties.
Spurred in part by his own electoral loss as a congressional candidate, Farris became fascinated with what happened to the men who ran the course, but finished second in the presidential sweepstakes. What he discovered is that these losers quietly reshaped the political map of America, often decades past the shame of their defeat.
Farris, who has worked as a reporter, political aide and lobbyist, brings a lively narrative to a well-researched series of profiles about the men who lost in a race for what is now the most powerful elected office in the world.
In a telling first chapter, Farris discusses the concession speech and its role in affirming over time a commitment to republican values and the dream that is America.
"The call for unity is not pablum," Farris writes. "America is still a comparatively young nation. The American experiment still seems fragile, which is why our entire system is designed to marginalize radicalism, forge consensus and prevent sudden shifts that might threaten our unity." Throughout the history of the nation, despite close elections, losers have displayed grace and devotion to constitutional principals, often referring in the moment of deepest despair to their support for "my president," who is the man they campaigned so hard and so long to defeat.