As the US election wraps up, I, like most other Canadians, am pulling for a Hillary Clinton victory. I am hopeful that she will win although it seems inevitable that Republicans will still control at least one branch of government (the House of Representatives) after the election. This could be seen as a restriction but Clinton should see it as a blessing in disguise and act accordingly.
I am mostly a centrist nowadays and my preference would be for Clinton to govern as one. I think she has an amazing opportunity to heal the country by being a unifying figure if she undertakes the right steps. This would be good for America and also good for the world as the world needs America to be a role model mature democracy rather than the joke and laughingstock that Trump has portrayed it to be to the world.
So what could Hillary Clinton do to help heal and unify her country?
1) Convince Mitt Romney to be her Secretary of State. Mitt Romney is the head of the "sane wing" of the Republican Party. He resisted Donald Trump throughout the primary process and has been outspoken in his criticism of Trump since then as well.
He was a good governor of Massachusetts, was a successful businessman and is a man of high moral character. He is a sharp thinker on policy including foreign policy and largely predicted Russia's slide towards rogue state status during the 2012 election. He may be wrong on certain issues as well but I would chalk up most of his past misguided statements on trying to appease the grievance/ignorance wing of the Republican base and so I don't think any such statements should be held too strongly against him. The pressures to appease the Republican base in trying to become their nominee are strong and I don't judge him for that.
There would certainly be resistance from within Clinton's own party in selecting such a prominent Republican for such a prominent position. Many Democrats may be clamouring for Joe Biden or some other senior Democrat to take the position. This would be a missed opportunity. Mitt Romney is a largely respected figure and elder statesman. He is a patriotic American and so would serve Clinton loyally if he assumed the position and would also constrain his public statements and policy ambitions to suit the President he is serving.
2) Convince Jeb Bush to be her Secretary of Education. There is a long tradition of Presidents selecting at least one member of the opposing party to sit in their cabinet. It has usually been a token selection. Even when Obama had Robert Gates as Defense Secretary in his cabinet, it wasn't a political risky decision as Robert Gates had no history in elected politics. This is why I think Clinton should seek to appoint two Republicans to her cabinet, in two prominent positions and that those two Republicans should be politicians with wide name recognition. Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney would suit those criteria easily.
Jeb Bush has been a leading policy thinker and advocate for improving the US education system for years. Many of his ideas may not jive with Hillary Clinton and her base but he could still be Education Secretary nonetheless. There's nothing wrong with some Republican ideas being implemented by a Democratic President (through a Republican Secretary) and there's nothing stopping Clinton from constraining Bush to focus on areas of improvement that are more bipartisan in nature.
Having two prominent Republicans (both of whom were stridently anti-Trump) in her cabinet would go a long way to show Americans that she is trying to govern in a unifying way.
3) Convince a Trump supporter such as Newt Gingrich to join her Administration. Convincing Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush to join her administration would be huge achievements but both individuals opposed their nominee, Donald Trump. It would be wise to find an opportunity to bring a prominent Trump supporter into her administration somehow. Newt Gingrich would be the least bad option in this area.
He has worked with Hillary Clinton on the past on electronic health records and although he has assumed very harsh rhetoric towards Clinton in the past few months (suggesting she is a criminal, etc.), it is safe to assume that this is more politically motivated due to his Trump support rather than a deeply-held conviction.
Having Newt inside the administration may help some of the die-hard Trump supporters also feel that they have a voice in government. One of Gingrich's top priorities during his 2012 presidential run was to improve the functioning of government departments using the management technique "Lean Six Sigma". Perhaps Clinton could appoint Gingrich as a "Czar" in charge of making government departments operate more efficiently and effectively using better management strategies.
While this would be risky, it's important to have all Americans feel as if they have a voice in government and it would still allow Clinton to keep the vast majority of appointments in Democratic hands.
4) Horse trading to achieve legislative policy goals. With a Republican house, it would be exceedingly difficult to achieve significant policy goals that require legislative action.
So what is a way around this? In my opinion, the solution is to let the Republicans have legislative victories as well. For example, in return for an increase in the Minimum Wage to $12 an hour, Republicans would also receive a policy victory in return (such as tax reform, some regulatory reform or anything else that could be comparable).
In order to achieve legislative victories in this manner, it would be important for Clinton to be very explicit about what she's doing. She could use her Vice President's contacts in Congress to bring a handful of Republicans on board with such a proposal (eg. Minimum Wage increase in return for a Republican policy victory on another issue) and then hold a press conference with those Republicans advocating for the trade in question. Or alternatively, she could go to Republican leadership with the proposal and negotiate with them directly.
With a divided government, policy trades are the most realistic way to avoid gridlock. They would restore the faith of citizens in their government's ability to operate and many of the bills passed in this manner would also have a positive policy impact.
Is much of this going to happen? Probably not, which is unfortunate. Right now, the biggest problem facing America is the sense that its system of government is broken; that it is too polarized and unable to function properly. Focusing on unity and getting past gridlock would be the most important things Clinton could do to get her country back on the right track.
