Will ‘grace and elegance’ make a comeback in DC? Don’t bet on it.

Democrats on the Hill have been gushing all week over their own performance regarding the certification of the outcome of the 2024 election. As one House member offered, they handled themselves with “grace and elegance.” 

Taken at face value, that is absolutely correct. There were no tantrums, no wailing and gnashing of teeth, no self-immolation and — aside from a bizarre outburst about the role of US Territories and Possessions — relatively little political grandstanding on the House floor on Monday.

More importantly, as Democrats are right to point out, there was no violence or even threat of civil unrest. As much as I hate to admit it as a Republican — and as an American — that will be the sad barometer for January 6ths for many years to come.

But before we all sing kumbaya together I think all this “grace and elegance” could benefit from some context. Part of which has to be:  Where was it during the election cycle?  

Lest we forget, from Joe Biden: "Let's be clear about what's at stake in 2020 ... Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican determined to destroy American democracy."

From Kamala Harris: “When asked if she believed that Trump is a fascist, Harris replied twice, ‘Yes, I do.’ Later, she brought it up herself, saying Trump would, if elected again, be ‘a president who admires dictators and is a fascist.’”

The Democratic Party (deliberately misquoting Trump): “Donald 'Dictator on Day One’” is an existential threat to our democracy.”

And Biden again: “He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy to put himself in power.”

And from Liz Cheney: "A vote for Donald Trump may mean the last election you ever get to vote in."

And no course on grace and elegance in American politics would be complete without the obligatory Hitler references. There were more than enough in this election.

I have run for office, so I’m not naive about this. I know that things are said in the heat of the campaign that both sides know are just hyperbole and exaggeration. I remember yard signs my opponent had printed up in my first campaign for office. It read, “'Make Raped Women Have Babies!!!’ — Mick Mulvaney.” 

But there is a difference between the ordinary inflamed rhetoric of a campaign and what the left — including their willing accomplices in much of the media — just spent the last 24 months doing to Donald Trump, his Republican colleagues and his supporters. No quiet acquiescence to the outcome of an election erases that.

The word is that Democrat leadership sent a directive out to their membership discouraging objections to the certification. Indeed, when all Democrats fell in line, it was the first time since George H.W. Bush’s win in 1988 that no Democrat objected to the certification of a Republican winner. One is left to wonder if there will be similar instructions encouraging civility in the next election cycle. Indeed, that would be an historic change: Democrats have now compared the Republican candidate for president to Adolf Hitler in every race since Richard Nixon.

As is so often the case when it comes to this town, I am not optimistic. And there is evidence supporting my pessimism. Back when the White House was trying to defend itself from its own base regarding Biden’s cordial post-election meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre assured us that “Biden’s thoughts about democracy being under threat" still applied.

My educated guess is that Biden isn’t alone in that. Which tells me that the vote on certification was more of a political charade than anything else.

Don’t get me wrong. We can use all of the grace and elegance that we can get in this country these days. And if the decorum that prevailed on the House floor earlier this week is a precursor of things to come, then we will all be better for it. I will give credit to members of Congress such as Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), who recently commented that what changed with the election is that Democrats realized that, perhaps in contrast to 2016, voters knew exactly who Trump was this time, what he stood for, and what he wanted to do — and they voted for him.

That is the sort of reasoned, rational perspective that augurs well for civil discourse in the coming Congress.

But count me among those who worry that it is far more likely that the vitriol of the 2024 campaign is more indicative of where politics is in this country, and that Monday’s vote was more show than substance.

A Democratic friend of mine once told me that the biggest lie in politics was the introduction “I hate to say I told you so.” As to whether grace and elegance really has a chance in this town, I really do hope that I am wrong.

Mick Mulvaney, a former congressman from South Carolina, is a contributor to NewsNation. He served as director of the Office of Management and Budget, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and White House chief of staff under President Donald Trump.