My Unsolicited Advice for President Obama

President-Elect Obama,

I congratulate you on this historic triumph. Your election to the highest office in the land has already been marked as an indelible moment in time, and rightly so. While America's original sin of slavery and racism has not been totally defeated by the vote yesterday, your election does indeed represent a kind of social progress that may enable the entire country to dialogue more constructively on matters that touch on race. This alone carries with it great potential for lasting progress.

I did not vote for you. I generally reject most traditional tenets of political (and theological) liberalism. As I examined your record, I saw too little hard evidence of the kind of post-partisanship your campaign has promised the country. I also saw too much of the old style of politics that your campaign claimed to move beyond. As such, I find myself in the uncomfortable position of celebrating your historic achievement while having to soberly distance myself from the euphoria it has spawned.

Nonetheless, as an American, as a conservative, and most of all as a Christian, I can promise you certain things. First, I pray that you will be a successful president. I would like nothing more than to be able to vote for you 4 years from now as a result of your first-term performance. Second, I promise to give you a sincere chance to fulfill the promises you've made to us, and not automatically question your sincerity or your motives when I disagree with you. Third, like every president before you, I pray for your safety and for your family's safety.

In exchange for these promises, allow me to offer you some advice. The biggest mistake that all recent presidents have made to varying degrees is that they forgot their election night victory speech the day after Inauguration Day. Every president of recent times has pledged to bring the country together, to cut down on the partisanship, to work with the other side to do the people's business, and be a president for all Americans. You hit on similar themes in your victory speech last night. But one reason why the country has grown increasingly polarized and bitter is that many people, rightly or wrongly, feel that their president has no real interest in seriously listening to them. For over 20 years now (and perhaps longer), supporters of the candidate who lost the election have not felt like their voices have been represented or considered when major policy proposals and directions are decided. It is much easier to feel animous toward someone whom you don't feel is taking you seriously enough to sincerely listen to your concerns. Recent presidents have learned the hard way that this creates enemies en masse, and it's not pleasant for them or good for the country. Don't make the mistake of shutting out the nearly 60 million people who cared enough to go to the polls and not vote for you.

We have all seen what the rancor of the Clinton and Bush years have done to the fabric of the country and the effectiveness of government to do the nation's business. Simply saying that we are a United States doesn't make it so, and it will not be so if the current tendency of presidents to resist constructive healing action despite their pledges to govern otherwise continues. The biggest threat facing the nation is not from external enemies, but internal strife and suspicion of each other. While the wound of slavery and racism has been alleviated somewhat by your victory, the more recent wound of ideological bitterness and the harmful wackiness that routinely results from it is still very much with us. You have your work cut out for you in trying to improve this threat. Presidents of both parties that have come before you have failed to make things better, and have actually made things worse. The best way to begin to reverse this trend is to make a sustained effort, both public and private, to not just listen to the other side, but make allowance for their views when they do not fundamentally compromise yours.

It's not your job to bring people together who don't want to come together. The Bush years are a depressing testament to this. But at some point, the cycle has to stop, and a truly new direction needs to be undertaken. And while I obviously have some doubts about your ability to do this after examining your record, I will give you the benefit of the doubt now. Not everyone who voted against you will, anymore than the legions that voted against Bush in 2000 or 2004 were ever really prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt either. But my prayer is that enough people will, and that this willingness will be met with a similar willingness by you to seriously engage them. If you do this, your presidency will be successful not just because of its historic significance, but because it will have represented a turning away from the precipice of factionalism to begin a renewed struggle for a truly common national purpose that might heal what's been painfully broken in recent decades. Learn from the mistakes of your predecessors.

I wish you well.