I worked a bit in 2012 for President Obama’s re-election campaign, where he shellacked the Republicans. That was the fun part. There’s also a very sad part that won’t go away. Mr. Romney’s loss stunned the entire GOP machine. In a campaign conference call a week after the election, Steven Mazie of the website BigThink says:

It turns out that Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” gaffe in October wasn’t a gaffe at all: it was, as some observed at the time, a reflection of how the Republican nominee sincerely regards the American political landscape.

On Wednesday, Romney held a conference call with campaign donors to give them his take on why he lost the election. The graciousness of Romney’s concession speech was not strongly in evidence. His contempt for the “moocher class” was. Here is Benjy Sarlin at TPM:

“According to reports in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times, the former Republican nominee said during a call with donors on Wednesday that Obama had been “very generous” in doling out “big gifts” to “the African American community, the Hispanic community and young people” as well as to women throughout his first term. Benefits such as access to “free health care,” guaranteed contraceptive coverage, more affordable student loans, and “amnesty for children of illegals,” all combined to give the president a decisive edge in popularity.”

“It’s an odd narrative,” Sarlin continues, “from the losing candidate, when you think about it: President Obama won re-election because he gave the people what they wanted. Shouldn’t the candidate who gives the people more of what they want expect to win the election? If Mitt Romney’s proposals were not what the people wanted, weren’t the people right to rebuff them?”

The saddest part is the unwillingness to acknowledge the voice of the electorate. The GOP of Abraham Lincoln makes Steven Spielberg’s recent movie of the president’s fight for civil rights look purely like a work of fiction. It’s time to play nice. It’s no mystery why bullying is such a big issue. While we disagree, someone’s children are taking note.