Trump scores high in first week of transition

One week and a day into his new life, Donald Trump and Republicans seem to be making the right moves - wise moves - as he prepares to assume the presidency, and as new sessions of the U.S. Congress prepare to either finish up 2016's business or get started on 2017.

To the contrary, Democrats, perhaps still in a state of shock, are having difficulty facing reality and determining what they need to be doing - and saying.

To his credit, President Obama has acted and spoken as a man with class, a status that Americans expect, but don't always get, in their president. His deliberate speech and careful use of words while he was visiting with Trump, and in comments to the White House press corps after, show that he doesn't want to generate any unnecessary friction.

What was said in private between Obama and Trump hasn't been revealed and likely won't be as both the president and future president seem eager to move forward.

But outside the White House, Democrat leaders who are trying to assure a smooth transition of power seem to be few and far between.

The most glaring example came two days after the votes were counted when Harry Reid, the Democrat leader in the U.S. Senate, who is leaving office, said this: "I have personally been on the ballot in Nevada for 26 elections and I have never seen anything like the reaction to the election completed last Tuesday. The election of Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America.

"White nationalists, Vladimir Putin and ISIS are celebrating Donald Trump's victory, while innocent, law-abiding Americans are wracked with fear - especially African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, LGBT Americans and Asian-Americans. Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America."

The "celebrations" Reid referred to paled by comparison to the demonstrations held in Chicago and numerous other cities for several days, disrupting traffic, interfering with shopping and routine business and requiring local police departments to double or triple or quadruple the forces on patrol. Many, perhaps most, of the demonstrators seemed to fit into the categories of "innocent Americans" Reid described.

I can't recall ever witnessing a leader of one of the major political parties pour as much gasoline on glowing embers as Reid did. To their credit, Democrat leaders in Nevada, Reid's home state, rebuked Reid's needless and inflammatory comments, but one wonders how someone with the mindset of Harry Reid could have been the leader of Democrats in the United States Senate.

Partisan politics aside, this election has generated some new discussions that seem worth having.

One involves the actual election process itself.

Perhaps our system of an "electoral college" should be evaluated for possible revision.

While no one disputes that Trump was elected based on "electoral" votes, it is a fact that Hillary Clinton received many more votes than Trump did, perhaps as many as a million or more.

To their credit, the Clintons have not objected publicly because they understand the system and have lived with it. But for a candidate who received a million votes fewer than his or her opponent to be declared the winner suggests that a review of the process ought to be conducted before the next presidential election.

Maybe the allocation of electoral votes to the states should be reviewed at the end of the year prior to a presidential election so that the electoral vote count will reflect the popular vote count more closely.

Closing with Republicans, and Trump, of course. It seems thus far - a week into it - that Trump is on his "best behavior" and listening to experienced Washington-types. He was respectful, and complimentary, during and following his meeting with President Obarna, and maybe, Harry Reid to the contrary, the early stages of the Trump transition and presidency will dispel a lot of worries and concerns.

But don't forget, Trump's campaign was marked with ups and downs, and he needs to continue to listen to the voices of reason, not just his own inclinations.

Ed Murnane, edmurnane@gmail.com, of Arlington Heights, is a former staff member for presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and former regional administrator for the Small Business Administration. In 2015, he retired as president of the Illinois Civil Justice League.