CLINTON, BE LIKE JAMES MONROE

There’s value in seizing the moment to co- opt vanquished opponents

Is it too much to hope that a decisive outcome in the November elections could drain some of the hyperpartisan poisons from the national bloodstream? Those who long for a more positive, less polarized politics can take encouragement from parallels with the presidential campaign of 200 years ago.

After a long, turbulent tenancy in the White House, the president’s party faced the electorate without confidence, unity or enthusiasm. Though admired for his intellect and idealism, the president had become a divisive figure due to his unsteady leadership in time of war. What’s more, the outgoing president’s insistence on installing his onetime secretary of State as his chosen replacement sparked resentment. Like Hillary Clinton, this former senator struck the party’s restive base as the ultimate insider — an aging avatar of a tired, out-of-touch establishment.

Nevertheless, the opposition party remained divided and discredited, with an outspoken New Yorker as its standard- bearer. Experts and insiders expected him to compete meaningfully in only a handful of states, and in the end he won just three. ‘ ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS’ The only surprise regarding the predictable outcome of the president- elect’s reaction: Rather than celebrating a landslide that crippled the opposition, the triumphant candidate seized the moment as an opportunity for post- partisanship. The new chief executive, James Monroe, reached out to dispirited foes, naming the son of the other party’s most recent president as the incoming secretary of State.

This resulted in a unique political moment distinguished by diplomatic triumph and congressional compromise, described by contemporaries as an “era of good feelings” that allowed the new president to claim a second term without significant opposition.

Clinton could plausibly benefit from this example. After his initial election in 1816, President Monroe managed to soothe the bitter divisions of his day. Though a member in good standing of the Democratic- Republican’s “Virginia Regency” that had ruled the young republic under his predecessors Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Monroe turned to New Englander John Quincy Adams, son of the last Federalist to serve as president, to lead the Cabinet.

This doesn’t mean that Clinton should select Jeb Bush to take over the State Department or any other key agency. But it does suggest she could learn from Monroe about the value in co- opting rather than crushing or crippling vanquished opponents. PRINCIPLED CONSERVATIVES It’s relatively easy to minimize polarization at a time when no one rallies to the opposing pole. Like the Federalists of 1816, the Republicans of today seem to be literally falling apart, with a greater appetite for blaming one another ( or the “rigged” media) than for pursuing their own promising solutions.

If the Republicans endure another drubbing this November, it will mean popular vote defeat in six of the past seven presidential elections. Their problems go well beyond a single nominee who enjoys a rare gift for alienating significant sectors of the electorate.

Long before Trump, GOP approaches in elections struck many voters as outdated and irrelevant. Voices have been raised within the party calling for a new strategy emphasizing more than stubborn resistance to every Democratic initiative combined with forlorn cries to “take our country back.” Many prominent Republicans ( including the party’s two former presidents and two most recent nominees) refused even to attend the Cleveland convention.

This ferment should encourage a new Democratic president to include some principled conservatives in her administration. Clinton can at least signal, even before the election, that she will give attention to their constructive conservative concerns.

President Hillary Clinton might not replicate President Monroe’s unexpected success in winning near- unanimous re- election or notching historic achievements such as the Monroe Doctrine, the Missouri Compromise and the Adams- Onis Treaty that won Florida for the United States. But she could neutralize her critics by changing the atmosphere in Washington: ending gridlock, encouraging cooperation, and making a clean break with the tone of the nasty, negative, appallingly empty campaign season that will snarl and claw its way to some decisive conclusion just a few brief weeks from today.

FROM THE BOOK PRESIDENTS BY RACHEL M. KOCHMANN President George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and John Quincy Adams.