As the dust settles from the momentous 2024 presidential election, Americans seem to be breathing a collective sigh of relief. Hope and optimism are permeating people of all political persuasions, except for some hardcore partisans. Conservatives and Republicans are certainly thrilled, and some liberals and even Democrats seem somewhat pleased. While alternative media allowed many more people to look past the mainstream media manufactured misinformation and get to know the real Donald Trump, Democrats are not suddenly embracing the orange menace, so what is the source of their unexpected ease?

In short, the body politic is discussing policies not personalities! A few stubborn malcontents are still hurling personal insults, but few are listening as evidenced by collapsing CNN and MSNBC viewership. The incessant ad hominem attacks throughout the campaign season proved pointless and powerless. Americans ignored the Democrat Media Complex and rejected the politics of personal destruction.

Instead, we are planning how to secure the border, stem illegal immigration, and reform legal immigration. We are working on reforming a woefully corrupt judicial system and restoring law enforcement to reduce crime and make our communities safe. We are discussing tariffs to protect our jobs and markets and preparing tax cuts to spur economic growth. We are intently waiting on a new cabinet determined to cut the bloated federal bureaucracy down to size. We are talking about making our food and medicine healthy. Even world leaders are coming to the table to discuss how we restore international order and stability.

Americans are invigorated because we are debating ideas and not trying to categorize every issue by identities. The nation is a mess. The country has been suffering from many problems for years now, so Americans are sick and tired of just bickering, maligning people, and not making any progress to real solutions. Trump won, democracy didn’t die, and Democrats realized Trump is not Hitler when Joe Biden welcomed him to the White House.

Trump is reaching out and listening to all sides. He has nominated several former Democrats to his cabinet. Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams is ready to work with Trump to make New York City safe again. Socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is intrigued by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency and wants to participate. There are still disagreements on certain issues among all, but these folks are working on solutions where they agree. And that’s what the American people want, so they are buoyed with hope that things can get better. So that America can be great again.

None of this should be a surprise. The United States was founded on ideas, specifically the concept of individual freedom. Our Founders may have all been white, but they had very different ideas on how to live in their respective colonies. However, they agreed on the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, so they created an enduring Constitutional Republic to preserve those rights. They didn’t dwell on their identities; they debated ideas and diversity followed naturally.

Still mired in identity politics, the Democrat Party seems to not have learned anything from the election. President Barack Obama recently told a Chicago audience the goal is still diversity or his new term, plurality, but the problem is he is still trying to divide people by their identity and not their ideas. Regardless of identity, there are people in every group with bad ideas that should be rejected, but moreover, it’s bigoted and racist to insist everyone in a particular group must hold the same ideas – they simply don’t.

Obama is launching a project to lessen political divisions, but ironically, he still insists we must cater to identity groups. He admonished Democrats to rebuild institutions that make plurality (diversity by identity) a habit. This is a hopelessly flawed concept that was just discarded by the electorate. We can never share ethnic, racial, or religious identities, but we can share the identity of being an American which is solely based on the ideas of freedom.

Identities do not preserve liberty, prosperity, and peace, but ideas do. Completely contrary to Obama’s prescription that diversity should be our goal, the United States was founded on the novel notion that all men are created equal by God. Then for over two centuries and still going today, people from every country on the planet have been flocking to America to participate in our democratic experiment thereby creating the most diverse and dynamic society in history. They didn’t come because their specific identity was favored, but rather because anyone could become an American and enjoy freedom. They came to simply be Americans!

Like our Founders and other great leaders, Trump is inspiring hope and uniting Americans around ideas, not his orange persona as erroneously forecast. He is talking about his policies and how we restore peace and prosperity for everyone regardless of your identity; he says his retribution will be success – making America great again!

“I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts” (Psalm 119:45).

Pete Riehm is a Navy Veteran, conservative activist, and columnist in south Alabama. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.