DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Well, my reputation is in tatters. I believed the polls. And I have never been so happy to be wrong in all my life. Not only did Trump win but he had coattails sufficient to enable the Republicans to retain control of the House (never in doubt) and Senate despite the fact that there were 24 GOP senators at risk and only 10 Democrats. Hoorah for America.
And now the hard work begins.
He immediately announced, as he must, that he will reach out to his opponents to reunite the country and to return our nation to strength, prosperity, safety and greatness. Now he will have to decide, even before he takes office, how and in what order he will eliminate Obama’s harmful executive orders, which regulations he will repeal and what legislative initiatives he will promote – certainly including repeal and replacement of Obamacare.
As President, Mr. Trump will have to walk a fine line which will enable him to keep his campaign promises and bring on board a substantial fraction of the nation’s Democrats and Independents, as well as those Republicans who were unwilling to support him during the campaign. Given the depths of the divisions which have afflicted this country under President Obama, this will be very difficult. But he must do this if he wants his accomplishments to be permanent and not just another swing of the political pendulum from left to right, to be followed by another swing in the opposite direction.
President-elect Trump realizes that he cannot rely solely on the GOP to do this. The Party itself is fractured and the old Reagan coalition is no longer effective and would probably be impossible to reconstitute. But Mr. Trump has just carried off the first successful American populist revolt against the ruling class since Andrew Jackson in the 1830’s.
He has redefined the Republican Party, expanding its base and rallying its forces like never before. That got him elected but, by itself, it will not be enough to enable him to govern a divided people. That is why it was so wise of him to reach out to the African-American and Hispanic communities during his campaign and to assure them that their interests will be protected and advanced in a Trump Administration. Having promised it now he needs to do it. And if he is successful he will have begun the creation of a Republican coalition which can supplant that which the Dems have created over the past five decades.
Success can ensure that the changes for which the American people just voted will not only take place but that they will remain after Mr. Trump is no longer in office.
The first two years of the Trump Administration will be critical. Like Obama did, he has control of both houses of Congress, though not with Obama’s super majority in the Senate.
If he can use the first two years effectively to make popular reforms and get the country back on the right track;
If he can quickly pass tax cuts and eliminate productivity-killing regulations so that growth can take place and revenues to the government increase during those two years;
If he can use that growth to offset the increases in the national debt and deficit which will inevitably come from tax cuts and expenditures to rebuild our military;
If he can successfully appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court;
He will have an opportunity to sell his policies to the American people in a way which will give him the ability to do even more after the out year election in 2018. This is because, in that year, there will be more Democrat senators up for re-election than Republicans and the communities which traditionally support the Dems do not normally vote as heavily in elections in which there is no presidential race.
The United States of America may be on the cusp of a period of reform and redirection similar to or maybe even more effective than, the election of Ronald Reagan.
It can happen. We may really see our country become great again.