Senator Arthur Vandenberg, from Michigan, is credited with using the phrase: “Politics stops at the water’s edge.” Though a Republican, he supported President Harry Truman’s anticommunist foreign policy. America could practice effective world leadership only if partisan domestic politics did not spill over into the country’s foreign policy decisions.

Though a mob attacking the U.S. capitol on January 10, 2021, did not directly attack U.S. foreign policy, it certainly weakened respect for the country’s ability to lead in world affairs. If our own ability to peacefully elect and inaugurate a president is in jeopardy, why should we presume world leadership?

Our government is based on peaceful changes to power, not mob violence. Those who lose must let the winners take office, even if the differences that divide us include life changing issues like abortion, sexual orientation, and school curriculums.

Such respect for the other side on an issue does not restrict peaceful involvement in groups favoring change. The ability to criticize via print and internet also is a protected right. (This right does not include lying or false accusations.) In addition, local elections provide opportunities for newer political directions.

America loves a winner. Yet, in past history, those who lost elections sometimes, by patient perseverance, ended up as later winners. Sometimes, of course, past ideas were changed by new discoveries or directions in thought.

We are all subject to human error. Allow past error to be changed by peaceful means. As long as we can look forward to the next free election, we can and should accept our losses.