Beyond the Presidency: How to Heal the Nation’s Divisions
History, properly read, is a remarkable story of human resilience. It is not an arc that bends upward but a long and winding path with peaks and valleys, stretching far past antiquity on one end, and deep into the unknown on the other. The United States will forge ahead. Let us not despair but instead use our talents to build a more perfect union going forward.
A Night Alarm: The Advance! by Charles West Cope, oil on canvas, 1871. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons
On a bizarrely warm November morning, Americans awoke to a second Trump presidency, making the 45th and now 47th POTUS the second President in US history to enjoy two nonconsecutive terms. Many people on center-right as well as the left rushed to express their fears that a second Trump term will be a more dangerous reality than his first. Indeed, many of us have observed that he has selected cabinet members primarily based on their personal loyalty to him, removing an immediate check on his power and trading off with more important considerations like competency; his campaign promises have taken a more extreme turn; and he has frequently expressed admiration for dictators.
But other pressing matters, such issues as partisan division, waning social and institutional trust, and rising extremism, go far beyond just Trump. Today I write to those on the center-left and the center-right who share these concerns. I ask, how do we, as individuals and as a nation, move forward to protect our republic?
CHALLENGES FACING THE LEFT AND RIGHT
I do not pretend to have all the answers, nor is it my intention to lecture. My goal is to contribute constructively to finding a path forward. Unlike Trump, we must respect the results of a free and fair election. The president-elect not only won a majority of the electoral votes but also the popular vote, leaving little ambiguity. Consequently, the #resistence strategy of 2016 and 2017 should be avoided. This approach not only proved to be counterproductive but it but it desensitized Americans to Trump’s unique crimes on January 6th. Americans must move forward with Trump as their next commander-in-chief, hoping for the best, preparing for the worst.
For this to happen, both left and right need a reconning. A healthy democracy requires a party that is broadly liberal and one broadly conservative. It thus benefits everyone if both major parties are functioning well. Given their recent defeat, the left will have to recon first. I do not just mean taking stock of where Harris’s campaign went wrong strategically. They will need to listen with an open mind to the very voters they have been hemorrhaging: the oft-referenced white working class of course, but also Black, Latino, and Indigenous voters—particularly men. In his article for Intelligencer, self-described leftist Sam Adler-Bell eloquently expressed how the progressive left has come to assume its own conclusions as clear moral righteousness and thus abandoned the work of actually convincing voters. Only through such reflection can the left hope to rebuild a broader coalition that will both advance their values and win elections.
“A healthy democracy requires a party that is broadly liberal and one broadly conservative. It thus benefits everyone if both major parties are functioning well.”
As for the Republicans, sooner or later they will have to grapple with the nature of their role as America’s conservative party, which I would broadly define as upholding foundational American principles, such as freedom and limited government, in a changing world. Conservatives will thus need to ask themselves whether this mission is compatible with the populist turn the Republican party has taken, though there is not the space to explore that question here.
It is also far from obvious that the loyalty to the MAGA movement will outlive the aging Donald himself. Even his highly successful children do not possess his same charisma. Demographics, moreover, are shifting. The Republicans have a golden opportunity to pick up more of the disaffected left, including more women and nonwhite people. In short, they must not limit their outlook to only this most recent election; they must expand it to encompass the longterm vision of their party and country.
WHAT INDIVIDUALS CAN DO
The major parties have their work ahead of them, but most of us have limited influence over their actions. In an era marked by stark divisions and the alarming rise of extremism and authoritarianism, what practical steps can individuals take? Those of us with more moderate sensibilities must resist the urge to fight fire with fire. Instead, we should steadfastly uphold our core principles and channel our efforts into constructive action. This commitment can be fulfilled in three main areas: voting in primary and local elections, building local communities, and prioritizing education.
First, we can make a point to vote in every primary election for which we are eligible. Each vote carries more weight than it does in the general election due to typically low turnout: only 20 percent of voters participate in the presidential primaries. To understand the real-world implications of low voter turnout, consider the case of Doug Mastriano, Pennsylvania’s Republican gubernatorial nominee in 2022. Mastriano, a QAnon conspiracy theorist who denies the results of the 2020 presidential election, lost handedly to the more moderate Democrat Josh Shapiro in the general election. Low turnout enabled the nomination of a polarizing figure like Mastriano, whose extreme rhetoric alienated moderate voters and led Republicans to withhold support, sealing his defeat. Indeed, this is just one example showing how too many of us are leaving a small but critical bit of our power on the table.
Another key area individual voters can exert influence is in local elections. This is the level on which issues shaping most Americans daily lives are handled, such as the selection of sheriffs and school board members, as well as public-school policies and zoning laws that affect housing prices. The latter is also highly consequential on the national stage, as rising housing costs deeply affect Americans’ perceptions of the health of the national economy—a key driver of turnout for the 2024 presidential election.
As stated above, the notion that one vote does not matter for primary elections is dubious. But some will argue that primaries are the domain of the far left and far right. First, it is actually a misconception that primaries at large are usually dominated by extremist voters. And even in locales where it is, the need for moderates to make their voices heard is that much greater. Ahead of the election, X/Twitter was full of sarcastic jokes saying something like, “Both of these candidates are so amazing I’m having trouble choos-ing between them,” jokes that rely on a widespread understanding that both Trump and Harris were considered poor options. So let us take steps toward a future where both candidates are broadly acceptable—two people the half of the country can at least live with.
But voting on its own is not enough—building strong local communities is equally vital. We must talk more to our friends, family, and neighbors, especially those with very different perspectives from our own. One simple way to maintain community ties is to host weekly dinners with other individuals or families. A friend of mine hosts discussions at her home for friends who disagree on contentious issues to discuss and to better understand each other’s perspectives. Now, I’m not saying that everyone needs to go to that extreme; in fact, it could do more harm than good if we are unequipped to moderate such a discussion. But most of us are generally able to support our isolated neighbors, and in so doing, make ourselves less isolated. Not only is this right and rewarding, but it may save people from falling into political extremism.
Another essential tool is education, both for ourselves and the next generation. As we continue to build up our small communities, we need education to understand what liberal democracy is and why it leads to better outcomes than other systems of government. While learning from past mistakes of the West, we must also ensure that our children understand its merits.
Indeed, education must also tackle the dangers of misinformation and social media, especially among youth. In the age of social media we have less face-to-face interaction but are never truly alone, never in our own company. Gen Z does not know a world without social media, and this is even truer of today’s young children. YouTube is full of videos aimed at toddlers. The average TikTok user is between eighteen and twenty-four years old. There is ample documentation of hostile foreign governments of countries such as Iran, China, and Russia using social media to drive polarization. Online misinformation and rage-baiting is certainly not exclusively a problem among youth, but bear in mind that their brains are still developing (we can’t know the full impact that unfettered screen time will have) and that it is easier for parents and policymakers to regulate what is directed at minors.
As a parent myself, I understand the pain and sometimes the futility of simply removing fun things. That is why I believe that noble efforts to eliminate misinformation and foreign interference will be worthless unless we provide a better alternative. Finally, we need to invest in our non-political hobbies, particularly ones that produce beautiful or useful things or experiences for others to enjoy. To exit the culture war, we need to build a more attractive alternative.
Such seemingly small, individual efforts may seem trivial to policy-minded folks. They are, however, vital for fostering a society where people generally trust each other. And trust is essential to a healthy democracy—crucial for channeling the rising political interest of recent years into constructive actions and away from the unproductive anger that dominates current discourse.
As we anticipate, or come to grips with, the direction this nation’s leadership is headed, let us remember to take the long view of history. The USA is more than one election. It is more than what has occurred since our parents and grandparents were born. This country has endured beyond its initial revolution and England’s attempt to take it back. It has endured Civil War, the rise and fall of slavery, economic depression, two world wars, and the forging of its identity in the flames of tensions between diverse cultures—and it emerged as the world’s superpower: a superpower to which the huddled masses still flock.
History, properly read, is a remarkable story of human resilience. It is not an arc that bends upward but a long and winding path with peaks and valleys, stretching far past antiquity on one end, and deep into the unknown on the other. The United States will forge ahead. Let us not despair but instead use our talents to build a more perfect union going forward.
