Vice President Kamala Harris will never win any awards for inspiring oratory, but credit where due — it’s a good thing that she accepted the results of the election, and that she called President-elect Donald Trump and assured him that she would do her part to ensure a peaceful transfer of power.

These used to be routine things in politics unworthy of mention, but in 2016, we had an immediate effort to try to delegitimize Trump’s victory by claiming he colluded with Russia to steal the election. And then of course we had Trump’s disgraceful refusal to admit defeat in 2020 that culminated with the Capitol riot.

In addition to conceding, Harris tried to pull back from the heated rhetoric of the closing weeks of the campaign, when she pushed the idea that Trump was a fascist. Today, she tried to calm her disappointed supporters, saying, “It’s going to be okay.”

One of the risks of Trump’s behavior in the post-2020 election was that it would help set a new standard in which disputing election results and refusing to concede just became standard operating procedure.

We don’t know what the next few months will hold, but at least today, Harris deserves credit for setting the tone for a more orderly transition. Hopefully we will revert to this standard in future elections.