In the end, Kamala Harris was the wrong candidate with the wrong message at the wrong time. President-elect Donald Trump won the greatest comeback in American political history – bigger than Richard Nixon’s 1968 victory – by surviving two assassination attempts, a media that was shamelessly in the tank for Harris and a majority of voters who appeared tired of being labeled “deplorables” and “garbage” by a condescending elite.

Trump has transformed the Republican Party from an image of a mostly white, big corporation- loving, country club, rich guy’s party, to a more racially diverse, working man’s party that the Democratic Party used to be. Trump peeled away a significant number of Black and Latino voters to win. He even did well in deep Blue New York City.

Harris flogged abortion as her only issue and Democrats, according to one estimate, spent half a billion dollars on TV ads claiming Trump would sign a national abortion ban. Voters apparently saw through the lie. Significantly, a Florida constitutional amendment that would have barred the government from involvement in the procedure to the point of denying parents the right to know about their daughter’s abortion, failed, as did a measure that would have legalized marijuana and made the state its chief dispenser.

In his relatively short (for him) victory speech, Trump said: “America has given us a mandate.” So, it seems with Republicans winning the S enate and likely to keep their House majority. Trump said his first act as president would be to “seal borders.” He also promised to “pay down debt.” He called his win “a massive victory of democracy,” a slap at The Washington Post’s slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Not on Tuesday. It beamed in brightness as a record number of Americans voted.

Trump said it is “time to put the divisions of the last four years behind us.” One hopes that wish comes true. It can start with a promise to cease name-calling. Both sides must make that promise and keep it. Policy is paramount and success will bring more unity than disparaging fellow Americans.

What might be another step in building some sort of unity is for President Biden to issue pardons to his son, Hunter, and to Donald Trump and for all cases against Trump to be dropped, including the New York political conviction of Trump on 34 trumped-up felony charges. This would allow the next president to focus on what concerns most Americans and the issues on which he ran, including inflation, grocery and gas prices, immigration and the border. What Republicans have rightly called “lawfare” in which someone (usually a Republican) is indicted as a political act must also end. A new attorney general who puts the law ahead of political retribution will go a long way toward achieving that goal and restoring public confidence in the justice system.

The contentiousness and bitterness of the last four years must end if the United States is to make progress and dig itself out of the dark hole we have been in.

Kamala Harris and her party sought to re-shape American institutions in ways the public rejected. In fact, her decision to say little about policy (other than abortion) made her the stealth candidate. People want to know what a president stands for and where he (or she) plans to lead the country. Harris failed to articulate that message. Trump did.

Given the results, it was not an overstatement (unusual for Trump) for him to say the election was “the day the American people regained control of their country.”

It was nice to see him give credit where credit was due, and not heap praise on himself. A little humility, combined with policy successes, will go a long way toward making his second term a victory for all Americans.

Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com.