Trump, Pelosi must work to bridge divide

With the midterm elections behind us and the House of Representatives under Democratic control come January, we are likely to be looking at most of the power in Washington split between Donald Trump and Nancy Pelosi. Both are alphas. Both are tough and determined to win.

A thumbnail sketch of each personality would almost make one believe that they are just as likely to be the best of friends as they are to be bitter enemies.

Unsurprisingly, President Trump has signaled that he is ready to rumble. Yesterday he tweeted, “If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level. Two can play that game!”

That was followed by a more ambiguous missive that hinted at support for the likely Speaker of the House. “In all fairness, Nancy Pelosi deserves to be chosen Speaker of the House by the Democrats. If they give her a hard time, perhaps we will add some Republican votes. She has earned this great honor!”

We don’t know if President Trump is actually offering some kind of olive branch or if he just sees having Nancy Pelosi as his chief rival in Washington as advantageous. Judging by his past statements, we can assume the latter.

Pelosi came out strong on election night and clearly defined the theme of the Democratic victory: “It’s about stopping the GOP and Mitch McConnell’s assault on Medicare and Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and the health care of 130 million Americans living with pre-existing medical conditions,” she said. At the same time, she, too, struck a rare, conciliatory note. “We will have accountability, and we will strive for bipartisanship with fairness on all sides. We will have a responsibility to find our common ground where we can (and) stand our ground where we can’t,” she said. “We have a bipartisan marketplace of ideas that makes our democracy strong. We have all had enough with division.”

Will we actually be discussing a bipartisan marketplace of ideas in 2019? It certainly would be refreshing and would go a long way to lower the temperature in the country.

Or will the D.C. donnybrook commence apace with Democratled committees launching investigations on everything Trump has ever touched? Are we in for days and days of Kavanaugh-like hearings in which Democrats grandstand and rail against Cabinet secretaries over issues like climate change?

H.L. Mencken famously wrote that “the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” Both parties have perfected this practice.

Certainly, politicians are going to do politics, but we must hope that our elected leaders — President Trump and Speaker Pelosi — can endeavor to work together in a civil fashion on issues where there is common ground. The country needs it.

To have that positive environment fostered by two of the most polarizing politicians in this century would be highly, highly unlikely based on history. But we are in a new place in today’s America. The cultural divide upon us has sown a rigid tribalism that can only be remedied from the top.

We need our elected leaders to be their best selves. We demand it.