Mollie Hemingway of the Federalist website explains how conservatives can help their liberal counterparts come to terms with the reality of a Donald Trump presidency.
Folks on the Right, regardless of how they feel about Trump, have been enjoying this meltdown. It’s funny! The hubris leading up the election only makes it more so! The more kindhearted keep encouraging the rest of us not to take so much delight in the tremendous difficulty the Left is having. And we all keep wondering just how long the Left is going to have this break with reality, this refusal to come to terms with life as it is.
Of course, conservatives have little room to talk. We’re handling this much better in part because we simply had much more time to get used to it. …
… [W]hether or not they thought it was a possibility, at some point Republicans had to accept the simple reality that Trump had won the Republican nomination.
It was that painful, tortuous journey to the Republican nomination that gives us some lessons for the Left to learn now. Here they are, in no particular order:
1) It’s Okay to Be Sad …
… No, I hadn’t been reflexively anti-Trump, but to say he wasn’t my preferred candidate is a profound understatement. I walked around in a funk for a couple of weeks. I hung on every word of my pastors’ sermons. I read a lot of Holy Scripture. Word to the wise: the Psalms were written for times like ours. …
… 2) Accept the Rules of the Game
One of the sillier responses to the 2016 election is to point out that Hillary Clinton won the “national popular vote” or some such. …
… This is very much like saying the Cleveland Indians tied the Cubs in the 2016 World Series because they both scored 27 runs over the course of the seven-game series. It’s a statistic without any meaning at all. We don’t elect presidents via a national vote — very far from it — so the idea that California and New York going big for Clinton is somehow meaningful is a non sequitur. …
… 3) Admit Your Candidate Has Flaws
Now, if the Right could do this, there is no excuse for someone on the Left having trouble here. There were a lot of GOPers really sold on their candidate in the 2016 GOP primary. There were accomplished governors, senators, and business leaders. There was true diversity of opinion on immigration, foreign policy, and health care. There were policy wonks and communication whizzes.
But the fact of the matter is that they were all bested by Trump for one reason or another. …
… There is no reason why anyone should deny that Hillary Clinton had tremendous problems as a candidate. She was robotic, she was focused on her opponent’s personality rather than his policy goals, she was embroiled in scandals caused by her own poor judgment, and she had instincts toward the status quo on foreign and domestic policy in a year when people wanted dramatic change. You can still like her and be happy with your vote while acknowledging that she had serious problems.