A historic victory, and a good start
No doubt about it — the rise of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States is a fairy-tale story, and whether you thought of Trump as the big bad wolf or as the brave little tailor who killed seven with one blow, the story has been both enchanting and infuriating by turns.
But nothing prepared America — or the world — for the climactic shock on Tuesday night to discover that the self-confident billionaire actually meant it when he brashly predicted he was going to win the White House.
Well, the good news is that the world did not end, and the even better news is that the various antagonists at the center of this drama are acting like adults as we await the significant transition of power from perhaps our most left-leaning president to potentially one of the most conservative.
It’s no secret that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have had few nice things to say about one another during the grueling campaign of the past year and a half, but in the interest of healing the deep divide in our country, Trump has been magnanimous in victory and Clinton has been gracious in defeat.
In his speech Wednesday morning, Trump said that when his opponent called him to concede, he “congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign.”
Moreover, despite his campaign rhetoric vilifying her, Trump told his supporters that “Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.”
Clinton, for her part, said that she had “congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country.” She told her supporters, moreover, that she hopes that Trump “will be a successful president for all Americans … We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.”
Good for her. That matches the generous tone set by Vice President Al Gore when he conceded he had lost the presidency to George W. Bush in a famously close and rancorous election. We can only hope that her voters do give Trump a chance instead of taking to the streets to chant angry slogans the way some demonstrators were doing Wednesday night.
As for President Obama, who not too many days ago called Trump “unfit” for the presidency, he extended an olive branch on Wednesday and said he has instructed his team “to follow the example that President Bush’s team set eight years ago, and work as hard as we can to make sure that this is a successful transition for the president-elect … We are now all rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country. The peaceful transition of power is one of the hallmarks of our democracy. And over the next few months, we are going to show that to the world.”
Obama and others before him have noted, “elections have consequences.” Those who voted for Hillary Clinton may not like the policy decisions made by President Trump in the coming four years, but they should respect the institution of the presidency and the sacred trust we hold as citizens to respect the process. We must move forward together, or be torn apart by our varied tugging interests.
As Donald Trump told the nation in the wake of his historic victory: “Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division … To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time.”