"Al Gore protested when George Bush stole the election from him, therefore Trump is justified protesting at losing in a comparative landslide in a completely clean election" is a parody of whataboutism.
I think so much about Al Gore's concession. He was utterly sincere about rising above personal desire & partisan advantage & doing the right thing for the country. He absolutely believed it. "They go low, we go high," the iconic case.
And not only did the nobility not register with Republicans, they are now using it as an example of its complete, utter opposite! Acting according to principles that transcend partisanship is INVISIBLE to the right. A part of the light spectrum they cannot see.
It didn't get him a whole lot of credit or respect on the left either. The signal characteristic of US politics, my entire adult life, is that shittiness is rewarded & doing the right thing isn't. I can barely even think of any counterexamples.
Like I remember Obama designing the stimulus for maximum economic effect rather than more visible spending that would tie his name to it & get him credit. "Do the right thing & the politics will work themselves out," he said. I totally bought it, too! Joke's on us I guess.
Similarly (while I'm ranting), it used to be a common trope on the left that the right's descent into fact-free conspiracy theorizing would eventually come back to bite it. "You can't run on lies & delusion forever!" they said. Once again, joke's on us.
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