Half of the country woke up Wednesday despondent. One of our major parties faces a devastating, decisive vote of no confidence from a divided country.
It’s just not the half of the country, or the party, a lot of people were expecting.
Donald Trump is the president-elect of the United States of America. He won without the support of many on the right — yes, myself included — and despite the apocalyptic language of many on the left. He won with the backing of a great many people in the middle, from the middle of the country, who feel strongly this nation and its prosperity had left them behind.
It is important for all of us, but especially those of us who never boarded the “Trump Train,” to understand why.
Trump’s victory has been ascribed by some commentators to race, but that’s a hollow explanation. Exit polls indeed show Trump won the white vote with 58 percent, but that’s actually 1 point less than Mitt Romney won in 2012. Trump narrowed the gap among black voters from 91 points in 2008 and 87 points in 2012 to 80 points this time. He trailed among Hispanic voters by 36 points, down from 44 points in 2012 and the same as in 2008.
No, what drove Trump to victory was a desire for change. Democrats convinced themselves such desire was weak after eight oh-so-wonderful years of Barack Obama. The #NeverTrump right convinced ourselves Trump’s brand of change didn’t appeal to that many Americans.
We were wrong. Asked by exit pollsters which “candidate qualities” mattered most to them, a plurality of 39 percent said the ability to bring change — more than in even 2008, the “hope and change” election. Trump won those voters by a 6-to-1 margin, and nothing Hillary Clinton and her supporters threw at him undermined that.
There are some bitter feelings among the losing side today, among people who are expressing fear and anger and alienation from their own country, which they say they no longer recognize.
The question now is what Trump does to assuage those fears. That doesn’t mean retreating to the political correctness he blasted on the campaign trail from day one. It does mean, because of the nature of the office he is set to assume, extending an olive branch of good faith to those who opposed him.
The early signs are good. Trump’s victory speech was gracious and magnanimous. It befit the office he won far better than most of what he said while seeking it. (So, for that matter, did Clinton’s concession speech. That we got the best from each candidate once the votes were counted is a reassuring sign and reason for optimism in the weeks ahead, which won’t all be easy.)
Based on how he campaigned, and how the voters responded, we might expect Trump to begin filling out his early agenda with these items: a new approach to the fight against ISIS; a resolution to the long-running debate over illegal immigration and border security; a rethinking of some aspects of U.S. trade policy; and a strong, conservative nominee for the empty seat on the Supreme Court.
He won decisively, and brought plenty of Republicans into Congress on his coattails. He has the mandate to tackle these items. And then we see what comes next.
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