The Flip Side

So, that’s done. Donald Trump is now president of the United States. I strongly disagree with his philosophy and apparent plans but I accept that he is the president of all of us, simply due to the fact that he took the oath.

There’s a flip side to that and it’s that President Trump has to realize that he is president of all of us, even those who didn’t vote for him, and if he has any mandate, it’s to take into consideration those on the other side and not just his voters. Really, any president should do so. Three million more people voted for Hillary Clinton than voted for him. The Constitution grants the presidency to the winner of the Electoral College but the president doesn’t govern the Electoral College; he governs the people, and he cannot ignore those 60-million-plus actual people who didn’t want him in the Oval Office.

Trump needs to govern all the people and address the concerns of people who didn’t vote for him. Since the election, there’s been a disturbing tendency among the Trump people and some of his voters to say “You lost. Get over it.” But it’s not like our team lost the Super Bowl and we’re still bitching about the refs. People have legitimate concerns that the new administration will take a hard line against their very way of life and hard-won rights and despite a few half-hearted attempts at unity, I didn’t see from his transition that President Trump really understands that. Consider these actions so far:

If President Trump cared about the concerns of African Americans regarding racism in the way our laws are enforced, he wouldn’t have tapped Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has a spotty experience with civil and voting rights, to head the Justice Department. He also wouldn’t have taken a shot at Rep. John Lewis, who has done the hard work of civil rights for 50 years, of being “all talk.”

If Trump cared about the LGBT community, he wouldn’t have asked Mike Pence, who signed a spiteful anti-gay law in Indiana and believes in conversion therapy, to be vice president.

If Trump cared about the concerns of those alarmed by white nationalists having influence on policy, he wouldn’t have Steve Bannon in the White House.

If Trump cared about voters concerned about the influence of big banks on policy, he wouldn’t have nominated former Goldman Sachs executive Seth Mnuchin, who had the nickname “foreclosure king” during the financial crisis, as Secretary of the Treasury. He also wouldn’t have appointed numerous advisers who worked for Goldman Sachs.

If Trump cared about his international policies being too bellicose, he would not have hired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who makes Curtis LeMay look stable, as his national security adviser.

If Trump cared about conflicts of influence in his administration, he wouldn’t have let his kids control his company, apparently not understanding what a blind trust is.

If Trump cared about people who think the United States is kowtowing to Russian influence, he wouldn’t have tapped Rex Tillerson, who literally got a friendship award from Vladimir Putin, as our top diplomat.

If Trump cared about the perception that he is hiring unqualified people for his cabinet, he wouldn’t have asked Ben Carson, a dimwitted man who has no experience in housing, to be HUD secretary. He also wouldn’t have asked Rick Perry to head the Department of Energy, a department Perry once wanted to eliminate (when he could remember the name of the department). He also wouldn’t have nominated as Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, a multi-billionaire whose track record shows a disdain for public schools, who couldn’t answer a basic question about using tests to measure students’ proficiency, and who shrugged when asked about conflicts of interest (she did not complete her ethics paperwork).

If Trump cared about the fear that he will ignore advice from professionals if they tell him what he doesn’t want to hear, he wouldn’t have trashed our intelligence agencies publically because they told him what he didn’t want to hear.

If Trump cared about people who are alarmed by his temperament, he wouldn’t have picked Twitter fights with anybody who can get under his thin skin.

You have to give people on the other side something. You have to do or say something, after this bitter election, that soothes their plausible fears. None of Trump’s actions since the election have shown me that he cares at all and I don’t think things are going to change. We’ll see what happens — because what else are we gonna do? — but so far I’m not impressed. Since November, he’s been carrying on and tweeting indignantly and bragging about his victory and punching down to his critics and basically acting like, “I won. Nyah nyah.”

These simply are not the actions of an adult, let alone a president.

I get the sense that Trump thinks accountability ended when he won the election; that he can just do whatever he wants because he got over 270 electoral votes. But accountability is just now beginning for him. People say “respect the office of the president” and I agree but part of respecting that office is keeping the office honest and criticizing it when its inhabitant warrants criticism.

No authority should be above criticism. President Obama wasn’t and Hillary Clinton wouldn’t have been. Holding President Trump to a high standard will safeguard the rights of the people and serve the country.