Elections come with a political mandate. This means that through the election process, the voters authorize and order the elected leader to accomplish certain political tasks. These objectives can be pursued, through legislation, executive action, and in leadership style and temperament. Discerning the political mandate involves answering important questions: What was the margin of victory? What were the key distinguishing factors between candidates? What demographics or coalitions pivoted toward the candidate based on these distinctions? A President must be clear on the mandate given. If it is misinterpreted or the correct issues not prioritized, that President and Party will pay in the next election cycle. But more importantly, it will further diminish the trust of the people in the institution of the presidency and in the government in general.

Last night, I sat at my dining room table watching protests on my phone as over the country people poured into the street to express their anger and disappointment over the grand jury decision not charge the three police officers indicted in the Breonna Taylor case with her murder.  In my kitchen, my wife, Aziza, was working to save a distressed orchid.  The two scenes, taking place simultaneously before my eyes, created a compelling contrast that helped bring into focus what was happening in my own thoughts and emotions.

American politics has become hyper-polarized in our time.  The work of Congress, the news media, and many of the institutions that anchor our civic life have been reduced to diametric opposition, irreconcilable difference, and debates aimed at the destruction of political enemies rather than the development of negotiated pathways to a prosperous future.  The most extreme voices on the left and the right seem to be the loudest and the best-funded.