WASHINGTON – Let’s be clear: The United States of America is not Donald Trump’s country.
When all the returns are in, Hillary Clinton will emerge with a popular vote lead of some 1.5 million to 2 million votes, according to estimates by both Nate Cohn of The New York Times and Henry Olsen, a conservative voting analyst whose pre-election predictions were close to the actual results.
To point this out is not a form of liberal denial. It’s a way of beginning to build a barricade against right-wing triumphalism – and of reminding immigrants, Muslims, African-Americans, Latinos and, yes, our daughters that most Americans stood with them on Election Day.
It is also not true that the emerging political coalition that elected President Obama died on Nov. 8. That alliance maintained its national advantage, as the popular vote shows, and came within a whisker in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan of delivering the election to Clinton.
We dare not forget the power that was arrayed behind Trump because it is that power that must be resisted over the next four years. Obama and Clinton both did the expected thing in wishing Trump well, and Lord knows, nothing would make me happier than for Trump to surprise us by being a pragmatist who said a lot of stuff he didn’t believe to win the presidency. If he governs reasonably, we will all be better off.