--- title: Sympathy for the Devil description: Losing isn't fun. Luckily, all my grief counselors are Democrats canonical: https://time.com/archive/6642913/sympathy-for-the-devil/ author: Rob Long article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-12-17T05:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-22T05:58:52.620Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sympathy for the Devil og:description: Losing isn't fun. Luckily, all my grief counselors are Democrats og:url: https://time.com/archive/6642913/sympathy-for-the-devil/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40cb36e989460e4e/698a4531096a9402c36aeacc/360_clong_1217.jpg?branch=production&width=360&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 360 og:image:height: 203 og:image:alt: 360_clong_1217.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sympathy for the Devil twitter:description: Losing isn't fun. Luckily, all my grief counselors are Democrats twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40cb36e989460e4e/698a4531096a9402c36aeacc/360_clong_1217.jpg?branch=production&width=360&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) # Sympathy for the Devil > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. Senior correspondent Philip Elliott brings sharp context to the issues driving the capital, connecting the decisions made in Washington to the institutions, industries and people they affect. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=54ab0949-9901-43dc-a39e-8efdf091b006&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Rob Long](https://time.com/author/rob-long/) Dec 17, 2012 5:00 AM UTC  Illustration by Pep Montserrat for TIME by [Rob Long](https://time.com/author/rob-long/) Dec 17, 2012 5:00 AM UTC A week after the election, I got a call from a network executive to whom I owe a pilot script. “Take as much time as you need on it,” she told me. “I know this must be a difficult time for you.” She wasn’t alone. Another friend texted, “U R my only Repub. friend n I feel bad 4 u. If u need some1 to get drunk w/ im up 4 it. Promise not 2 gloat. Much.” Which he didn’t, much, when we got together a few days later. And that’s what’s been so surprising about the pummeling we Republicans suffered last month: the gloating has been unexpectedly muted, at least in my circle. Yes, the usual cable loudmouths spiked the ball in their usual loudmouth way. But if my experience is any indication, the friendships that had been tested by the long and bitter election have emerged intact and may be even stronger. I live in Southern California and work in the entertainment industry, which is about 95% Democratic, so pretty much every friend I have out here leans left. I’ve never been an in-the-closet Republican. Hollywood, despite its single-party politics, is a pretty accepting place. Shoplifters, drug addicts and Republicans can all find a way to earn their peanuts in the circus of show business, and the lefties who run the place are a lot more tolerant, if my conservative friends in academia are to be believed, than your typical university tenure committee. Why is Hollywood so resolutely left wing? The big reason, of course, is money. For most Hollywood celebrities and executives, money cascades into their pockets with such torrential velocity that it ceases to have any real meaning. Sort of like the federal government. But because of the piranha swarm of agents, managers and lawyers–all of whom take a slice of their clients’ salaries–most Hollywood types never see their paycheck, which has the most effective piece of Republican direct mail ever invented, the pay stub, attached to it. The pay stub enumerates all the little ways the government squeezes you dry, and the initial shock of seeing it laid out like that is the first step a lot of people take on the way to joining the GOP. But if you’re used to having your paycheck sliced and hollowed out anyway by greedy managers and grasping agents, what’s another vig to pay? It may also have something to do with the archaic concept of hard work, which normally involves lifting or moving or welding heavy objects, or toiling in some airless cubicle in desperate need of money. It does not, unlike in Hollywood, involve yoga, iPads and buying $8,000 shirts. Put it this way: the grips, dolly pushers, camera operators, set builders, film loaders and electricians on any movie set tend to be on the rightward side of the political discussion. The other folks, who tend to sit in their trailers drinking bottles of French water and eating raw food, are usually on the left. Still, it’s been those folks who have been so gentle with me since the Great Republican Collapse of 2012\. And that has been unnerving. I’m a Republican, after all: I’m instantly suspicious of acts of random kindness. Recently, when I was out for a cheer-up drink with a Democratic pal, he insisted on paying the tab. “This is on me,” he said, uncharacteristically. Then he grabbed my arm and looked me dead in the eye. “Don’t let one election cripple your party,” he said. “You guys need to get your act together and then come back swinging.” This from a man who drives a Nissan Leaf and refuses to eat anything with a face. I should take his kindness at face value. It sucks to lose, and who would know that better than a Gore-Lieberman 2000 bundler? Maybe he remembers the sting of losing to the (to them, at least) bafflingly popular George W. Bush. Maybe he recalls the giddy delusions of his ilk on Election Day 2004, and the shell shock the day after, when W. grinned from the front page of the New York Times. Maybe in my eyes he sees something familiar: the pain of someone whom the voters have rejected. Or maybe, and I’m thinking wishfully here, some of my Democratic friends realize that keeping the GOP strong and healthy is a desirable thing. We’re the snarling pitbull on the very heavy leash: menacing, but a useful brake on the more ridiculous elements in the majority party. Republicans may lose the popular vote a lot, but those same voters want to keep us around to prevent Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi from giving every American free mani-pedis–the only thing the federal government doesn’t yet dole out–for life. Sorry. That last part was bitter and unseemly. And it isn’t a fair way to repay the kindness I’ve been shown. If we win again–no, wait, when we win again–I’ll try to remember it. Long is a contributing editor at National Review and the editor of [Ricochet.com](https://Ricochet.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6642913/sympathy-for-the-devil/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6642913/sympathy-for-the-devil/"},"headline":"Sympathy for the Devil","datePublished":"2012-12-17T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-22T05:58:52.620Z","description":"Losing isn't fun. 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