The Morning After
It is “the day after” Trump’s reelection. The sun arose in the east, as it can be expected to do every day. Nevertheless, vociferous predictions of calamity and catastrophe continue within certain circles. Contact your liberal friends today. They will not be well.
Despite contrary predictions and prognostications, Trump seems on track to win BOTH the Electoral College and the popular vote. For him, this is an astounding feat, and it was last accomplished by a Republican in 2004. For the third election in a row, Trump outperformed the polls. He exceeded the expectations of “experts” and defied media talking heads. Trump succeeded despite overwhelming odds and despite incessant and ferocious opposition (lasting nearly eight years).
Trump may claim a “mandate,” as newly elected Presidents often do, but they almost always do so mistakenly. Many who cast votes “for” Trump can be described most accurately as casting votes AGAINST his opposition. Many — especially those among an expanded coalition — were voting against propositions, policies, and programs, for which the Harris-Walz campaign stood.
They were voting against an unpopular Biden-Harris administration. They were voting against a Party, which in this single election cycle engaged in not just one but two successive Presidential campaigns founded upon “disinformation” and fostered by blatant and unabashed lies. The Party, administration officials, and supporters lied frequently and loudly for months, if not years, about the declining competence and increasing incapacity of the elder Biden. They presented a “new” (but obviously unconvincing) picture of Kamala Harris, which was a facade, fiction, and fraud. They had a platform, which was founded principally upon lies, deceptions, and obfuscations.
The electorate also voted against a complicit media machine, in which so-called journalists have become dutiful propagandists. Mainstream media chooses to advance preferred, official, and self-serving narratives. The people voted against patronization, condescension, and arrogance.
Now comes the hard part: Trump and the GOP must demonstrate that they can govern (at least somewhat better than the alternative). The best thing that Trump can do is to stop being his own worst enemy. He no longer has anything to prove. He does not have the potential of a reelection as a distraction. There are capable persons (across the political spectrum), on whose knowledge, experience, and expertise he can rely (should his outsized ego allow him to do so). The Presidency is bigger than a single man, and successful governing requires buy-in from both supporters and opponents.
Trump certainly should not seek to expand the Imperial Presidency. The perceived “threat” from Trump is specifically related to the fact that the office (and the bureaucratic Executive Branch) has been expanded well beyond the confines of the Constitution. All is well and good so long as “your” candidate or party holds the reins of power. What is seen as efficient and effective in one instance may be viewed as abusive and even tyrannical when the tables are turned. While little hope exists that extra-constitutional powers of the office may be effectively curtailed (in the near term), Congress should step up and resume its necessary roles of legislation and oversight.
BOTH of the legacy political parties can learn from these experiences. They can refocus their efforts on points of agreement, of which there are many. As a people and a nation, we should emphasize our vast commonalities rather than exacerbate our limited differences. The parties and related politicians can step away from contentious issues, which divide the populous and create strife. True success at any level or of description requires bipartisan effort. Continued polarization, stagnation, and retribution fuel waste, discontentment, and self-destruction.
In order to clarify that focus and to limit further distractions, Biden could secure a well-deserved place in history should he exercise the power afforded to him as the sitting President and pardon Trump. Do I expect Biden to do this purely as a magnanimous gesture? No, but it potentially benefits Democrats, Biden himself, and certainly the nation.
It removes a distraction. It removes the motivation or compulsion upon Congressional Democrats to continue investigations and prosecutions (nay persecutions) of Trump (at least at the federal level). If that is not enough, the motivations may be entirely self-serving. Trump also should offer a blanket pardon to the elder Biden and perhaps a more limited but similarly beneficial pardon to the junior son, Hunter Biden.
These things would allow the country to move on, to heal, and to unify without unnecessary distractions and without incessant and destructive cycles of retaliation, revenge, and retribution.
Trump and the GOP must realize what is at stake for themselves and for the nation. Should they choose to mirror the Democratic Party in being myopic, vengeful, condescending, and arrogant, they risk the tide of public opinion turning against them quickly and harshly. Should they fail to move the nation forward, that failure will fall entirely and deservedly on their shoulders.
