This editorial was intentionally written prior to the results of Tuesday night’s election:

Dear Mr. (or Madam) President,

You have inherited a divided country. There’s no denying it. You may have been responsible for some of that division yourself—either from your own words and actions or those of your campaign surrogates. But all that is past now.

You have a difficult task ahead: Stitch up the wounds of this contentious election and craft a vision for moving forward. Some might think this is impossible, but we don’t. America is still a great nation and its greatness is a direct result of the goodness of its people. Appeal to that inherent goodness in each of us. Find common ground to work on some of the more contentious issues facing us today. Don’t ignore those of us that didn’t vote for you on Tuesday; we are no longer Democrats or Republicans—on Nov. 9 we all became simply Americans. It’s your job to keep us that way.

There is a t...