In an age of polarization, Donald Trump was an incredibly divisive candidate. He called his opponent the devil and threatened to jail her if he won. His antagonism extended not just to Democrats but to a number of countries abroad, including trade allies like Mexico and fellow NATO members. His victory pleased probably the smallest proportion of America’s population since the "Corrupt Bargain" of 1824 installed John Quincy Adams in place of the popular Andrew Jackson. (Note: Russians do seem to be thrilled with Trump’s victory, which is not reassuring.)
The fires protestors lit in the streets of Washington, D.C., have only just cooled. Clearly a great many people are not happy with our new president. I’m less than thrilled myself. A great many people are also, I gauge, hoping to see President Donald Trump make some of the same mistakes real estate magnate Donald Trump and candidate Donald Trump has made. People are eager to see him fail.
The continued animosity toward Trump has a similar root as the “I told you so” in average human relationships. We all know how satisfying it is to say that when what we predicted or warned about comes to pass.
The satisfaction of being proven right is undeniable. But think about what smugness in your relationships leads to. If you tell a friend not to do something you think is a bad idea and they do it anyway and experience the consequences, you are left with two alternatives. Either be smug about it and remind them that you warned them about that, or try again to help them, despite them not listening to you the first time. The first option will strain the relationship; the second will strengthen it.
We have the same two options now, but I would argue that we have little choice between them when it comes to our president. As American citizens, we can’t just walk away. Our president’s failures affect us all. So we can’t afford to smugly sit back and hope he fails. Such a mindset is not conducive to healthy societal functioning and is actually self-defeating.
Please don’t interpret me as telling you that you must get behind everything Trump is planning just because he won the election and is now the president. I wouldn’t ask that of myself. Rather, I implore that both parties look first to the flourishing of the nation rather than to their own agendas. Political parties ostensibly exist to promote the good of the nation — if they welcome the deterioration of the nation because they think it will give them an advantage in the next election or simply because they are disgruntled with the incoming president, they have gone horribly astray.
For better or for worse, Donald Trump will preside over the nation’s welfare for the next four years. That is enough that all Americans should be wishing the best for Trump’s presidency. We can hope that some things on his agenda fail to be enacted or that his negative traits and ideas don’t spread further in our government, but let’s at least hope for the flourishing of our nation and the world under his administration. The least we can do is to pray that he does his office justice and leads wisely.