Despite the shock of politicians, pundits and observers around the world, it should come as no surprise that Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. As we know from Rousseau's The Social Contract and the notion of popular sovereignty upon which our society rests, the mission of the people is to abolish a government when it exceeds the boundaries set in place by the people. That is what happened on November 8th, when the American people voted to reject an extension of the status quo in Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party.
The frustration with the almost uniformly liberal ruling class for the past decade or so has been simmering not just in the United States but across Europe. Trump skilfully grasped this frustration while the ruling class remained deaf.
Since the UK’s Brexit vote, the response of the liberal elite has so far been to blame the woes of the middle class on the uncontrollable effects of globalisation and digitalisation, or even the voters themselves – the “deplorable” voters who must be racist, xenophobic and bigoted.
Instability
These factors probably exist in some pockets of the vast, diverse US. But the liberal elite is unwilling to recognise how its own policies and principles are driving instability in every part of the country. In the US, rising healthcare costs under Obamacare, onerous taxes and regulations on businesses, scandals within the justice department, IRS and state department (at which Clinton was central), executive overreach in areas such as immigration and open borders are a few examples of the failed liberal policies that Americans rejected on Tuesday.
For the US, President Trump may not be the solution, but he represents a dismantling of the political elite and its constant seeking of increased power over people for their own benefit. Trump is returning that mantle to the people.
A Trump victory makes the US great because it reminds us that our democracy is working as it should. Now that he has been elected, he deserves a chance to deliver under this new social contract.
To be clear, we do not know for certain what Trump will do but we know what his campaign priorities were. There is early bipartisan support in Congress for corporate tax reform, which would help to correct US job loss, and a transportation budget, which would move a backlog on infrastructure projects. Immigration is more contentious but there is a clear mandate for reform.
Even more important is the appointment of Supreme Court justices. In the short term, Trump will appoint a replacement of conservative justice Antonin Scalia. He would be wise to appoint a constitutional conservative, one who understands that the US constitution was designed to be a check on both Congress and the president should they mess up along the way. Certainly, the prospect for someone like this is greater under a Trump presidency than a Clinton one.
New solutions
Behind the scenes, the Republican Party has been working on new solutions during a sclerotic time for Democrats and a presidential campaign that, on both sides, generally lacked policy specifics.
House Speaker Paul Ryan's A Better Way: Our Vision for a Confident America outlines fresh, consensus-based proposals on topics including poverty, national security, the economy, the constitution, healthcare and tax reform. At the heart of these proposals are powerful ideas that reflect those of our founding fathers: free enterprise, self-determination and individual empowerment.
Trump should lean on his vice-president, Mike Pence, and on Ryan (as well as, hopefully, other seasoned and disciplined Republicans in his cabinet) to guide him on policy with these principles at the core.
Even if those abroad do not think Trump himself is so great, the free and fair democratic process by which he was elected still is so. The good news is that if Trump fails, Americans will once again have the opportunity to decide whether to renew the new contract.
Meghan Kelly is an Irish Times reader. In June she wrote an article entitled "Why don't you Irish get Donald Trump?"