DONALD TRUMP IS THE first Republican to have put working Americans at the center of his appeals. In his “Contract with the American Voter,” he promised that on day one, he would take the following seven actions to protect American workers:
First, I will announce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205; second, I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership; third, I will direct my Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator; fourth, I will direct the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately; fifth, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars’ worth of job producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal; sixth, lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward; seventh, cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America’s water and environmental infrastructure.1
Trump is actually the first Republican to speak to all Americans: to the Evangelical and LGBTQ communities; to blacks and whites; to Democrats, Bernie Sanders supporters, and Republicans. While the political battle we face is divisive, it is a battle based not on immutable characteristics like race and gender, not on identity, but on ideas, and specifically the ideas of America’s founding fathers and against the progressive assault on those ideas. Not all Democrats understand the implications of their party’s commitments, since their leaders are adept at camouflaging them or, like Hillary and Obama, brazenly lying about them. Not all Democrats are progressives, though it is difficult to discern a leader of the Democratic Party who is not. Since the Republican vision is a vision not of identities in conflict but of a diverse society of individuals who are free and equal before the law, its appeal is universal and inclusive. People who disagree politically can come together and compromise over their differences.
“I will fight for every neglected part of this nation—and I will fight to bring us all together as One American People,” Trump told an audience in Miami. “Imagine what our country could accomplish if we started working together as One People, under One God, saluting One American Flag. It is time to break with the bitter failures of the past, and to embrace a new, inclusive and prosperous American future. Jobs will return, incomes will rise, and new factories will come rushing back to our shores. Once more, we will have a government of, by and for the people. We Will Make America Prosperous Again. We Will Make America Strong Again. And We Will Make America Great Again.”2
Trump’s inclusiveness is all but overlooked by a biased national media, which worked hard during the campaign to do the Democrats’ dirty work and portray him as a bigot, a misogynist, an Islamophobe, a xenophobe, and in general, deplorable. Also overlooked, and not only by the left-wing media but by conservatives as well, was the irony that the overarching theme of Trump’s campaign—as it should be of all Republican campaigns—was hope and change: “All I see everywhere I travel in this nation is untapped potential waiting to be realized. If we unlock the potential of this country, no dream is outside of our reach. If we stop believing in our failed politicians and start believing in ourselves then anything—anything—is possible. I’m asking you to dream big, to push for bold change, and to believe in a movement powered by our love for each other and our love for our country. That is how we will truly make America great again.”3
Donald Trump will have to be president of all the American people, and this will inevitably put restraints on the aggressiveness he displayed in the campaign. Well and good. But the resistance to him and his policies will be just as great and probably greater. There will be protest/riots in the streets and in front of the White House. There will be the same “gotcha” politics, the same lies and slanders, the same distortions from the left and its media as in the election campaign. Every misstep will be amplified, every adversity exaggerated. And the agenda will be as it was during the campaign: to destroy him and to destroy everybody who supports him. The good news is that the election showed that millions of Americans see through the distortions and are not swayed by the slanders. The good news is that millions upon millions of Americans understand the nature of the battles and the stakes of the war. And their understanding and determination will change the Republican Party and transform it into a force that wants to win.