Needed: An Administration of National Unity

Given the close results of the 2016 presidential election, in which the president-elect won the electoral college but lost the popular vote, We the People desperately need an “Administration of National Unity.”

President-elect Trump should appoint an administration that reflects a range of views and is dedicated to finding common ground and unifying the country.

The administration should coalesce around the reasons people voted for the president-elect. It should also address the reasons the popular majority voted against him.

Those who voted against him did so primarily because of his public personality, statements and behavior and because of his unpredictability, seeming instability and blatant disregard for the truth.

Others ignored the president-elect's personal weaknesses and voted FOR him primarily because of his pledge to strengthen the economy — an economy that has left them desperate for change.

It should be noted that the Democratic Party’s candidates throughout the primaries all sought the same goal of economic growth and job creation. Rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure was one of the few areas of agreement between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Trump and both parties also agree on the urgent need for unity and tranquility following this bitter election.

Trump himself is already backing away from several of his divisive, broad-brush positions. (It is amazing what Trump's 90-minute, "reality check" with President Obama did!)

Now Trump should appoint (and even pair off) leaders from both parties and elsewhere. He should demand consensus from them all.

He should give the entire nation reason for hope.

The president-elect should demonstrate not just bi-partisanship but non-partisanship. That is evidenced in his own political history. He should demonstrate magnanimity and inclusion.

We know Donald Trump is a striver who yearns to succeed. He should be fully aware that the failure to unite this country will doom the Trump presidency and result in personal failure for one Donald Trump.

The Election and Fox's 'Ocean of Light and Love'

On the eve of this frightening election, words spoken more than 350 years ago have helped me.

They come from George Fox, who founded the Quakers.

England was in the throes of a tumultuous, bloody civil war at the time. Fox was a young, uneducated, deeply troubled man. He was literally adrift in the war-torn country, and searching for “Truth.” He could not find it anywhere. Not among the “professors” (read “pastors”) nor in the Bible.

Nonetheless, in this time of peril, he had a vision (one among many) of an “Ocean of Darkness and Death” being covered by an “infinite Ocean of Light and Love.”

He continues in his journal that the “darkness" compelled him to learn the “conditions" of all so that he could speak to them. From this darkness, the Light leads him, and us, to “openings”  — leads us to love.

This 2016 political campaign, terrible as it has been, terrible as its outcome could be regardless as who wins, may be the “opening” we all need.

Strangely, many, perhaps a majority, of us are united in voting not for one candidate but against the other — the lesser of two “evils” as we see it.

For there to be reconciliation, it’s not helpful to argue over which candidate is which. Our pain in the darkness of negativity is shared regardless of how we voted.

If we can move beyond finger-pointing and blame, yes beyond hate, we have the opportunity to draw closer together, to find unity and even agreement on the nation’s needed course.

Clearly we all suffer from our “bubble” lives….from our isolating “conditions” as Fox described them. His vision tells us that Light will lead us to explore our differing “conditions” and find healing in understanding and love.

It’s worth reading the “Ocean of Light” passage in his journal: If it helps, you can embrace, or merely accept or read past Fox’s religiosity.

Here is the passage:

"I cried unto the Lord, saying, “Why should I be thus, seeing I was never addicted to commit these evils?” and the Lord answered that it was needful I should have a sense of all conditions, how else should I speak to all conditions? and in this I saw the infinite love of God. I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death; but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. In that also I saw the infinite love of God, and I had great openings….”  1652