Donald Trump’s presidential victory last night was about many things. I will let others parse and declare what those are. They all intersect and converge into one truly incredible, history-defying event. But one thing I noticed while a presidential candidate and while traveling alongside President-elect Trump during his primary battle, was this appeal to a new American Manifest Destiny.
America has always been a beacon for individuals who wanted to make something great of their lives and fortunes; for those who had seemingly tried all things everywhere else but found new hope, new inspiration here on our shores. It certainly began with a tiny ship crossing a deep blue sea and landing in Jamestown over 400-years ago.
{mosads}But that sense of hope and pursuit of something more than oneself have never left. It is indelibly marked into the DNA of this nation. We may not remember and certainly don’t always feel it, but by the grace of God, it is passed from generation to generation.
Historians labeled that zeal for American greatness as Manifest Destiny — an acknowledgment that, whether by Providence or something else — this nation was always on a path to write the course of history, and play such a critical role on the stage of mankind.
What we saw last night was a renaissance of that Manifest Destiny — a rebirth and re-dedication to the pursuit of exceptionalism. Defying party labels, voter behaviors, and all indicators, Americans summoned within themselves a sense that doesn’t fit easily into a political box, and it certainly can’t be measured in a random sample poll.
I’m not sure President-elect Donald Trump fully understood nor understands what he tapped into. But for the next four years, he will definitely attempt to harness that sentiment to advance a political agenda we will not soon forget. One thing is obvious — today, at least — this pursuit of greatness existed before Trump arrived on the presidential stage, and it will exist long after he has exited the public spotlight.
The same can be said for the Republican Party. For those who swore they would do all they could to see that Trump lost, let me say the party is bigger than one person. It always has been. It must be.
The principles of the GOP must live outside any one person or any group of people. That’s what has made conservatism and the party so resilient and so appealing to so many. Like our wonderful experiment we call democracy, it has its problems and shortcomings.
And even though I don’t align with one party, I have been around the political system long enough to see the party doesn’t have personhood. And it must never be that way. Irrespective of who sits at the head of either party — Republican or Democrat — they both must always magnify the greatness of this Republic; speak to its inherent goodness, and pull out its darkest roots.
Today signifies a new dawn. Donald Trump may be at the head of that new beginning, but its ties are centuries old.