Congratulations, Trump, from a Hillary supporter

Hillary Clinton’s loss still stings while I write this. But write it, I must.

This election has been, to put it mildly, very divisive. Personality attacks hit an all-time high for our 240-year-old democracy. Issues were not discussed in depth. There was little attempt to persuade swing voters, because there were hardly any swing voters. The camps were entrenched almost from day one.

But now we must all come together.

For those of us who did not vote for Donald Trump, it’s time for us to do our best to work together with him. To do our best to help him succeed. To do our best help him in his work to lead our country.

My congratulations to President-elect Trump and his supporters. You fought to victory. The American people heard your call and have placed their hope your leadership.

For those of us who thought voting for Trump was a bad choice, we now need to work with him to prove ourselves wrong. I’m not saying we write Trump a blank check. Indeed, we need to keep him in check.

But the divisiveness must end. If it doesn’t, it will be our undoing.

It’s true that candidate Trump did not treat opponents with respect for the last 18 months. (Indeed, a Republican Congress has not treated President Obama with respect for the last eight years.) But we need to rise above that and, despite these failings, we need to give Trump the benefit of the doubt as he starts his administration. We need to do better. When they go low, we go high. We need to set an example for how democracy is done.

I strongly supported Bernie Sanders. When he lost the primary, I reluctantly but resolutely got on board with Clinton to work to help our country. I do that again today. I’m on board with helping Trump have a successful administration.

We owe this to our country. We owe this to ourselves. At the end of the day, we’re all on the same team.