Transition

Moments after his shocking win was sealed, Donald Trump transformed into a different person. He toned down his rhetoric. He was more conciliatory.

This has to be a case of Jekyll becoming Trump – or the other way around. It was almost like we saw one person during the most divisive campaign in US political history and another as the crucial transition began.

The divisiveness of the campaign spilled into the streets hours after the results became clear, with thousands protesting in the streets.The polarized public sentiment will likely linger on. Like Al Gore in 2000, Hillary Clinton edged out Trump in the popular vote although she lost heavily in the Electoral College votes.

There is America and then there is Middle America. The Democratic Party dominated in the more liberal Northeast and West Coast. The Republican Party won nearly everything in between.

Clinton won in the urban centers, among the college educated, the young, ethnic minorities and white women. Trump won among the less educated, rural communities and white males. He won in the Midwest and the South, in the so-called Rust Belt and among the retiree population in Florida.

It is as if America were two nations. One is more engaged with the rest of the world; the other fearful of foreigners and free trade. One is more socially liberal, multicultural and more permissive. The other is socially conservative, preferring to hold on to traditional values and a more homogenous society.

It could be that Trump won and the Republican Party lost, although they retained their majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The candidate was an outsider, one who many years ago declared that should he run for President he would do so under the Republican Party because its voters tend to believe anything said on Fox News.

The Republican establishment has little love for Trump. He represented an insurgency within the party directed against the party’s elite. He differed with the party over many issues. When Trump won the primaries and forced himself on the GOP, the old Republicans grumbled. When his campaign rhetoric grew darker, the old Republicans openly rebuked the party’s candidate.

There are sharp policy disagreements between Trump and the mainstream Republicans. The President-elect can only govern by finding common ground with the party mainstream. For that alone, he needs to dramatically change what comes out of his mouth or what appears in his tweets.

Trump’s voter numbers closely resemble those that voted for Britain to exit the European Union. They were mostly the less skilled who were fearful of migrants with superior skills. They were rural and less cosmopolitan than urban voters. They tended to be older.

Trump’s voters, like those who chose Brexit, were fearful of a world with no borders. They saw globalization as a process that took away their jobs. They see countries that export to the US as enemies and would rather see national economies as protectionist bastions.

Those voters, who see Trump’s most scandalous remarks as ideological doctrine, are likely to be very disappointed over the next few months. There is not going to be a wall at the Mexican border and much less likely that the southern neighbor will pay for this monstrosity. There will be no massive deportation of the 11 million illegal aliens; it is simply impracticable.

Notwithstanding his spectacular victory at the polls, Trump must now hew more closely with the Republican mainstream that truly controls Washington DC. If he continues warring against his own party, he cannot govern. He cannot push his agenda forward, whatever that agenda might be.

A day after the count confirmed his victory, Trump visited Barack Obama at the White House. He described the sitting president a “good man.” The meeting was apparently cordial. It was necessary to heal the wounds of the campaign and prevent polarization from deepening.

This is the magic of electoral democracy. Whatever words were exchanged during the campaign, each must show a common resolve to work for the betterment of the country.

Both Trump and Obama were surprisingly polite. They have to be. There were ominous demonstrations in the streets of dozens of American cities.

Trump’s victory is also fortuitous for a certain Rodrigo Roa Duterte. It gives him an opportunity to reset his own position on our bilateral relationship with the US.

Although Duterte once described Trump a “bigot,” it was clear he preferred Trump over Clinton. He sees in the Trump vote something akin to the voter rebellion that propelled him to power last May. It is a rebellion of the excluded, the disadvantaged and the disillusioned.

In his own campaign to be President, Duterte employed populist rhetoric much like Trump did. Having rose to power on a populist tide, both of them must now try to calm the masses and moderate expectations.

As a gesture of friendship to the American president-elect, Duterte announced that joint military exercises will continue as planned. He reaffirmed the vitality of bilateral relations between our two countries. That turn-around must have been met with a sigh of relief in Washington.

While resetting his position on our bilateral relations, Duterte also announced he will sign the Paris Accord on climate change. He has apparently been won over by his more sober Cabinet.

They say an electoral campaign is waged on poetry while governing is done in prose. Trump showed the way by graciousness to the extreme after winning the elections.

Duterte might learn something from that about governing in prose.