After one of the harshest, loudest presidential campaigns in memory, the first thing that occurs to me in the wake of a Donald Trump victory is the need for some quiet humility. If the characteristically brash president-elect can display it, I can surely follow suit.
I spent more than a year favoring Ted Cruz, up to the moment he withdrew. But even within that span of time, there were so many brutal slanders leveled at Trump that I spent more time defending him than I did voicing my preference for Cruz.
Once Trump was the nominee, the attacks intensified -- predictably from the left, and unsettlingly from the Never Trump hordes and other conservatives driven to irrationality by their distaste for him.
The media made clear their revulsion. “Republican” strategists proudly recoiled. Some corners of patrician Republicanism, from the sphere of the Bush family to ivory tower pundits like George Will, not only reveled in their disconnect but mightily insulted those of us who dared to unite to stop Hillary Clinton, which until recently was a shared goal of all conservatives.
These people have now been schooled by the will of the people, kicked in the pants by realities they might now begin to grasp. It would be the easiest thing to deliver to the lot of them an “I told you so” for the ages. Not that I predicted this win; all I did was push back against those who said it was impossible, and those who somehow knew it would signal a societal catastrophe.
But instead of victory laps and ball-spiking, I would prefer to follow the lead of the next president to reach out to those who are inconsolable to say this is not the nightmare the tormentors have painted.
Losing elections is never fun, as I know from seeing my candidate lose four of the last six. But some election night “analysis” was genuinely disconcerting.
Van Jones, always a reliable source of hot rhetoric on the left, launched into a rant on CNN as midnight approached, lamenting that “some of us will have a tough time talking to our kids. How can we tell them not be a bully? Race doesn’t explain all of this, but this is ‘whitelash.’”
On most other nights, I would ignore this kind of outrageous drivel. But today, behind every unhinged commentator, there are large numbers of regular people who really are in pain, well beyond the normal bruises of an electoral loss.
They have been whipped into a lather by the absurd rhetoric that the next president hates Hispanics, hates Muslims, hates women and intends an authoritarian dystopia.
These are false. It is his job to show this to the nation, and his gracious victory address was a great start. But I want to be an agent of reassurance as well. Politically, the left needs to get ready for an assault on its beliefs, a battle of the precise type Hillary Clinton intended for conservatives. Elections have consequences.
But Trump’s complaint has never been with Hispanics. It is with illegal immigrants. It has never been with Muslims. It is with jihadists who wish to kill us. The women who actually know him and work with him sing his praises, and millions of women just helped him win.
The Trump voter is not a racist, not a misogynist, not a xenophobe. I know these people. I am one of these people. Every voting bloc has its crazies. Does Hillary Clinton deserve to be judged by the hooligans who disrupted Trump rallies?
So everybody relax. Here comes a presidency that will bolster US borders, protect the US Constitution, get tough on terrorists, create jobs, lower taxes and find better alternatives to Obamacare. These will attract the usual reactions from those who approve and disapprove.
But enough needless drama driven by the contrived panic of those who have hated him from the start. Trump won fair and square. Voters said yes to him and no to a return of the Clintons to the White House, and no to Barack Obama’s third term. Let’s move forward, reacting to actual events and actual policies. After a campaign like this, the relative composure should be refreshing.
By Mark Davis
Mark Davis is a North Texas-based conservative talk show host who regularly writes for the Dallas Morning News. --Ed.
