This Is President Trump's Chance to Start New, to Heal Wounds — and America's Chance to Listen

America welcomes its new president tomorrow, and in doing so presents a new face to the world. Knowing this, everyday people, politicians and potentates from Denton to Damascus will be watching. Some with hope, some with tears, others holding their breath.This is Donald Trump's opportunity, his best and perhaps only opportunity, to start fresh with the American people he will lead, a population still largely skeptical and bitterly divided over what may come in a Trump administration. In his hands is power to put away the rhetoric of the campaign and divisiveness of his Twitter feed. Now is Trump's moment to lay out clearly — even forcefully, but with graciousness and healing — what this moment in time demands of America, of its people and of its president. It's a moment to put at ease America's allies, and to articulate clearly our values to those who would be our foes. He must now lay out the vision he has for this country, and make it clear for all Americans where they can support him and what they must oppose.Now is the moment Trump can begin to frame how America will remember its 45th president. But he needn't confront the challenge alone. He can and should draw from the deep well of inherited wisdom from his most eloquent predecessors.Thirty-six years ago, when, as today, presidential power passed from a Democrat to a Republican, President Ronald Reagan famously declared, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."   Continue reading...

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