DECATUR, Ga. (AP) – For an hour they stood shoulder to shoulder, those who supported Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, praying together in a service of postelection healing. Noting the painful labels and divisions of the just-finished campaign, the Rev. Jenna Faith Strizak said, “We’ve got to figure out how to live together. And not just live together, but be one.”
That could take a miracle: To bring together those elated by Trump’s ascension to president-elect with those who see him as an embodiment of the country’s worst instincts and a threat to its future. Even as Clinton pledged the victor her support Wednesday, others protested in the streets, burned flags and insisted he didn’t represent them.
“It’s shattering,” said Byron Beck, a writer in Portland, Oregon, who supported Clinton. While harshly faulting Trump, he cast the moment as a dilemma for all Americans. “We have lost our way, and I don’t know what that reset button will look like, but I know that I will work for it or I’ll leave the country.”
Trump extended a hand to such opponents in his victory speech, saying Clinton was owed “a major debt of gratitude” as he made an impassioned plea for both sides to join behind him: “Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division. … To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.”
But the nation remained split over whether that was achievable or a pollyannaish vision. Exit polls showed voters expressing not just unhappiness with the way government is working but, among many who found hope in Trump, outright anger.