Soon this circus will be over. And, barring catastrophic polling error, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton will have likely won the presidency. She would do well to view Republican nominee Donald Trump not just as a defeated political opponent, but as the symptom of a disease that must be treated.
While his candidacy seemed like a sick joke for much of the early campaign season, Trump has come frighteningly close to the Oval Office. He has managed to win the support of a significant portion of America despite making a series of political missteps that would verge on comical if they weren’t so often hateful and divisive.
This points to a deeper problem in American politics, and we ask that a prospective Clinton administration address it. The divides that separate us—financially, geographically, and politically—have grown too wide, and this has left room for dangerous forces to emerge. Having quashed Trump, Clinton would then need to make sense of the environment that allowed for his successes.
Trump-ism might die with a potential Trump defeat, but if the conditions that propelled him do not change, a candidate with a more refined set of political skills could all too easily take up his mantle in future elections. If Clinton wins, we ask that she act to lessen the likelihood of this prospect.
There are plenty of policy measures that could help achieve this, but we feel that the first, and most important step, is to bridge the gap that has created such mutual disdain between the white working class and the political establishment in America.
This disdain is not entirely the fault of those supporting Trump. It is largely due to a failure of imagination among those within the policymaking establishment, who simply do not understand the problems that exist outside their areas of the country. The problem of Trump, and the atmosphere that fuelled the growth of his movement, cannot be solved unless coastal elites attempt to empathize with the white working class in America. The beginning of solving the problem of Trump is understanding his appeal, and as of now, that seems to be beyond the ability of most in the establishment.
This is not to say that either the Democrats or the government should bow to the pressures of bigotry and division put forth by Trump’s movement. It is only to recognize that the global economy, with its free movement of people and goods, has produced winners and losers. It would seem only natural that liberals would seek to protect the welfare of those marginalized by these changes. We ask that the next administration do so. If a would-be Clinton administration is able to lessen the impact of globalization on such groups, including the white working class, then it would likely lessen the chances that this demographic erupts into another full-scale political rebellion.
None of which is to excuse the toxicity of Trump and his ideas. It is only to say that a Clinton administration can take steps to ensure that this movement, once defeated, stays dead. His campaign has made clear that, if nothing else, serious divisions exist within America that must be addressed. To ignore them would be to risk enabling the next quasi-authoritarian political movement to take this country by storm.
