Trump’s new challenge: Proving he can represent all Americans

By Ric Anderson

Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016 | 11:30 p.m.

Donald Trump has won the presidency, so congratulations are in order.

Trump faced polls throughout the campaign that showed him trailing Hillary Clinton, but he never stopped charging. His tenacity is truly remarkable.

Now, however, he faces an enormous challenge.

He must convince all of the people he insulted, demeaned and vilified that he can represent them.

If he doesn’t, the wave of fear and distrust that he built during his campaign threatens to do irreparable damage.

Through months of bruising rhetoric, Trump did his best to convince Americans that their government was their enemy, that the election process was rigged and that members of their own communities were threats, particularly Muslims and Hispanic immigrants.

As Tuesday’s results prove, a large group of Americans believed him.

But another outcome is that Americans will awake today to rifts deeper than any the nation has experienced since the Civil Rights era. And unlike those divisions, today’s aren’t contained to flashpoint areas in Mississippi, Alabama and the Deep South.

Anger and disillusionment flare from coast to coast, city to city and neighborhood to neighborhood, threatening to turn Americans against each other at any place and any time.

After an election that sunk to the point where violence routinely broke out at ralles and Trump's supporters chanted “Execute her!” in reference to Clinton, it’s not an exaggeration to say that we’re at a point where the fabric of the nation could be torn apart.

So coming out of a brutal election, it’s critical for both parties to start working to heal the wounds.

For Trump, that means doing something he hasn’t shown the capability of doing — build bridges. In other words, he needs to act presidential.

Trump made a promising start late Tuesday during his victory speech when he praised Clinton and her family for a hard-fought campaign.

“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,” he said. “Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division. I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time. I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans.”

But the speech came at a high point. Trump needs to show he can also rise to occasions under pressure and maintain his composure, unlike he did on the campaign trail and during his three debates with Clinton.

The hateful campaign rhetoric must never return.

Muslim refugees should not be classified as enemies of the state based only on their religion, and any movement toward mass deportation of undocumented immigrants must cease.

As president, it will be critical for Trump to recognize that he was a deeply unpopular candidate, as shown by exit polls on Tuesday showing that a majority of voters didn’t see him as temperamentally fit to hold the office. His approval ratings among women and minorities were abysmal. Although the group of disillusioned Americans that he tapped into was large enough to get him elected, he didn’t come close to receiving a mandate.

Trump also should recognize the strength of the Hispanic vote in Nevada, where Clinton swamped him thanks in no small part to efforts to activate Hispanics.

For those who opposed Trump, what happened in Nevada is a silver lining. Trump and the Republican Party should see it that way, too — as a step toward a more participatory and healthy democracy.

Meanwhile, Democrats also should work to heal the wounds from the campaign.

That would mean addressing a root of the anger that Trump turned into fuel for his campaign — a sense that the nation’s economy has stagnated. It’s not good enough to point to the last jobs report, which showed that unemployment had shrunk to 4.9 percent, and say the economy is on the right track. One of Trump’s on-target attack points centered on the meager gains of the Gross Domestic Product in recent years. It’s going to take bold steps to kick the economy into another gear, and Democrats should be open to suggestions.

But if there’s anything that both sides should take away from the election, it’s that Americans wanted a change in Washington — so much so that they were willing to elect a candidate who many see as unpredictable, unqualified and unprepared.

That should be a sign to Republicans and Democrats alike that it’s critical for the nation’s leaders not to be obstructive, but instead help Washington return to a time when compromise was considered an art and not a cardinal sin.