The essays, analyses and opinions presented as Community Voices express the perspectives of their authors on topics of interest and importance to the community, and are not intended to reflect perspectives on behalf of the Salish Current.
Commentary: The general election results are not a clear mandate from the voters.
Donald Trump will return to the White House in January and Republicans will have the majority in the House and Senate.
While the president-elect and his allies are trumpeting the general election results as a clear mandate from the public, the results show they are anything but.
The number of Americans who voted in this year’s presidential election was down compared to 2020. Some 149.1 million Americans voted for the two top candidates for president in 2024, compared to 155.5 million in 2020.
Trump received 76,057,063 votes in the presidential election, according to updated results Nov. 15. Some 75.2 million Americans voted for someone else.
Trump won Wisconsin by less than 1%, Michigan by 1.4%, Pennsylvania by 1.8%. Those states voted for Barack Obama in 2012, Trump in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020, and Trump again in 2024. Depending on how Trump’s economic and trade policies play out, these leading manufacturing and export states could flip again in 2028.
The Republicans have a 53–47 majority in the Senate, but 33 Senate seats will be on the ballot in 2026. The Republicans have a slim majority in the House, but all 435 House seats will be on the ballot again in two years. Republican control is precarious at best.
Bottom line: Republicans and Democrats in Congress need each other. And Americans need Republicans and Democrats in Congress to work together to compromise and find common ground on legislation.
Senators from both political parties have expressed concern about Trump’s cabinet nominees. With help from their colleagues across the aisle, Republicans can ensure confirmation hearings are held and can resist Trump’s efforts to install his nominees by recess appointment.
Trump is brokering an end to the war in Ukraine, which could result in Ukraine ceding territory to Russia. Members of Congress from both parties must work together to ensure such a conclusion does not embolden Russia to make further incursions into Europe and expand its influence in the Middle East.
Trump proposes using the military to deport illegal immigrants. Republicans and Democrats must work together to ensure human rights are protected and that the U.S. doesn’t resurrect Trump 45’s policy of separating children from their families. Republicans and Democrats must work together to reform our immigration system and help neighboring countries correct the conditions that cause migration from within their borders. Clearly, the U.S. benefits when its neighbors have healthy economies, educational opportunities and low crime rates.
Finally, Republicans and Democrats must get to know their constituents. One of my favorite political commercials from the past is one from 1960 featuring Sen. John F. Kennedy sitting in the living room of a Mr. and Mrs. Sills, listening to their concerns about the rising cost of living. The point: He showed that he cared, that he believed the success of a farmer in Iowa was important to urban dwellers in New England.
Democrats must forget what they think they know about Americans in the Midwest and Southern states; Republicans must forget what they think they know about Americans in the West Coast and New England states. The adage “It’s the economy” applies in every election, and it sure did in 2024.
As the sun sets on Biden’s presidency, the number of manufacturing jobs exceeds those of Trump and Obama, the unemployment rate is 4.1%, stocks are up 50%, and average pay is up 19%. But many Americans don’t feel prosperous, thanks to inflation and higher gas prices (the former is controlled by the Fed, the latter by supply and demand) and voted for change — just as they did four years earlier when the economy tanked during the pandemic.
Republicans and Democrats need to work together to ensure that the higher tariffs proposed by Trump don’t result in higher prices for American consumers and small businesses. The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates Trump’s proposed tariff increases would cost a middle-income household at least $1,700 in increased expenses each year. That figure doesn’t include retaliatory tariffs by our trade partners.
Trump will be a lame-duck president when he takes office. Republicans and Democrats really have little to fear in working together to address the myriad challenges of the day. Republicans and Democrats can start building a healthier, progressive political system now — one that is bipartisan, not divisive; one that is distinguished by dialogue, not tarnished by name calling and finger pointing; one in which members of Congress learn to see each other as people “rather than as just the opposition,” as Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Georgia) wrote Nov. 19 in The Washington Post.
Seventy-seven percent of Americans polled before the election by Gallup said they disapproved of Congress’s job performance. Work together and get stuff done — that, I believe, is the real mandate.
Members of Congress — and their constituents — have much to lose if they don’t.
— By Richard Arlin Walker
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