The U.S. election is over, and now the world’s most powerful nation must heal. Americans, and by extension the rest of the world, have lived through the ugliest campaign in living memory.
More than 150 years ago, at a time when the United States faced the greatest threat to its existence, Abraham Lincoln appealed to his fellow Americans to heed “the better angels of our nature.” Hard as it might be, their descendants must try to do so again.
It is up to both president-elect Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to lead that healing. Both must recognize that what they do and say in the next few days will make healing possible or will condemn the country to years of division.
Living so close to the wounded republic, Canadians watch with trepidation and sympathy. We want the best for our large friend, but are conscious that the painful thrashing could injure us.
The massive vote for Trump was a clear message that millions of Americans believe their leaders have ignored them for too long. Along with an angry demand for change came disturbing currents of racism and misogyny that must be faced and overcome.
Regardless of their own ambitions and party loyalties, Clinton and Trump have a larger responsibility: To do everything in their power to ensure a great democracy will endure.
This is not just an abstract concept. Without a functioning democracy that honours the rule of law, ordinary Americans face chaos that threatens all that they value.
And Americans have much to value.
The United States remains the world’s most successful democracy. It is a beacon to the people of other countries who long for freedom, fair laws and a say in their own destinies.
When disasters happen anywhere in the world, it is almost always the Americans who jump in first to help. The United States has welcomed people from all over the world, taking the best they have to offer into a country famous for its innovation and openness.
In the dawn of the morning after, everyone in the United States must try to remember the many things for which they can be thankful. Angry as they might be, they can clamber out of bed knowing that power will change hands without tanks in the streets.
If an uncomfortably large number of people think prison is a good idea for the losing candidate, Trump must take responsibility for that damaging attitude.
Trump’s greatest offence against the American people was to cast doubt on the essential functioning of democracy. He said the election was rigged against him. He warned — without evidence — of widespread voter fraud. He refused to say whether he would accept the result of the election. He encouraged violence against his critics. He denied the impartiality of public servants. He threatened to put Clinton in jail.
He either did not see or did not care about the danger of the movement he was creating by validating fear, hatred, vengefulness and suspicion.
Democracy depends on its citizens’ adherence to a system of laws that govern their relationships with each other and the state, and give them a stable framework in which to live their lives. Undermine their belief in that system, and the nation sinks closer to the condition of countries where political power flows through the fist and the boot.
Americans can heal their country. They just need example and inspiration.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump aspire to be leaders. For the sake of the people of the United States, both of them must prove they are leaders in the best sense of that word.
