You know what lost in the 2022 midterm elections? Meanness.

Take Kari Lake, Republican candidate for governor in Arizona. At a campaign stop she made a flippant joke about the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, who was hospitalized. She often called the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona a “loser,” and at rallies said McCain Republicans could “get the [expletive] out.”

She embraced former President Donald Trump’s false claims of 2020 fraud. At one stop she pointed at the press corral and said, “These [expletive] don’t want us talking about the stolen election.”

Ms. Lake lost. 

John Fetterman, Democratic Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, had a stroke in May. This fall, Republicans mocked his health condition. Donald Trump Jr. questioned Mr. Fetterman’s mental state in harsh terms. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel asked whether he could speak a full sentence.

Mr. Fetterman won.

Then there were the ranks of election deniers. Dozens of them won – mainly incumbent members of Congress.

But virtually every Republican candidate who embraced the false notion 2020 was stolen and who ran for a top office in a battleground state lost. 

Then many did something surprising. They conceded.

Doug Mastriano, who was at the Jan. 6 Capitol rally, lost his race for Pennsylvania governor. Instead of charging fraud he issued a statement saying opponent Josh Shapiro had won, and that everyone should “pray he leads well.”

If 2020 weakened the American tradition of peaceful transfers of power, 2022 may have repaired some of the damage.

“I am grateful ... for those Republican and Democratic candidates who showed their patriotism by gracefully conceding their races,” tweeted MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. “In a campaign year when little can be taken for granted, it matters.”