LGBT Senior’s Featured Essay: A Win-Win, by Rick Rose

Winner Winner

By Sup. Rick Rose

The headlines came in fast Tuesday night. Winners and losers. Who’s up, who’s down. The tallies rolled in across Dane County — this one wins, that one loses, on to the next race.

I was on that list. After four years serving District 16 as County Board Supervisor, the voters chose someone new. In the language of election night, I lost.

But that framing is wrong.

Democracy isn’t a zero-sum game. It’s a hand-off of trust. The people weigh in, they make a choice, and then something remarkable hopefully happens — the person leaving makes room, and the person arriving steps up. That’s not defeat. That’s the whole point.

One of the more poignant moments from my two terms, wasn’t a vote cast for 350 pieces of legislation I sponsored or a policy shaped, too may to name it came last night. It  was the concession call.

Goodwill Obiese – the candidate the majority of voters just chose to represent District 16 Dane County – was on the receiving end. And what I heard was exactly what democracy is sounds like. Goodwill said he’d reach out for wisdom. I said I’d be there along the way. 

No bitterness. No score-settling. Just one person handing the good work to the next.  It’s a win-win. 

And that’s also what the vote wins every single time — not a winner and a loser, but a peaceful transfer of trust from one neighbor to another, one servant to another.