Trump Michigan

President-elect Donald Trump in Michigan during the campaign.

(Jeff Kowalsky | AFP | Getty Images)

Protestors who are chanting that Donald Trump is "not my president" need to think again. We are a democracy, and he won this election.

Those few who used violence should think again, too. What would they say if Hillary Clinton had won, and Trump supporters started throwing rocks?

But the bulk of protestors are marching peacefully to show Trump that they will not sit by quietly if he defiles this great country by dividing us by race, religion, sex and even physical disabilities. We heard enough of that during this disheartening campaign.

If the nation is to heal, then Trump himself has to be at the heart of it. He has to show that he intends to put aside the hate, and be the president of all Americans, as he has promised.

Today, that seems like a remote possibility. The appointment of Stephen Bannon as chief strategist is flat-out alarming, even if it comes as no big surprise.

Bannon, the bomb-throwing chairman of Breitbart News, is a professional provocateur who specializes in stirring resentment in white America with messages of hate directed at African-Americans, Muslims, Latinos, women - you name it. Like the Trump campaign, his web site is a fact-free zone that wins fulsome praise from white supremacists.

Don't take our word for it. Visit the site, if you have the stomach for it. Two weeks after the Charleston shootings, it advised to "hoist the Confederate flag and fly it with pride."

Here's a headline that is equal parts stupid and sexist: "Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy." And one that's just nuts: "Racist pro-Nazi roots of Planned Parenthood revealed."

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Trump's election presents a moral and political challenge. During President Obama's eight years in power, Republicans showed him nothing but disrespect. They opposed everything he touched. They challenged his religion, and even his legitimacy, with Trump marching at the head of the stupid parade.

Many Democrats are eager for payback. That is an understandable emotion. When you are slapped in the face, you want to slap back.

But if you care about this country, it is time to swallow hard and look for common ground. That's the moral challenge.

Trump wants to rebuild the nation's infrastructure, and so do Democrats. Let's start there.

He spoke out against the "carried interest" provision that allows Wall Street hedge fund managers to pay taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries. Let's see if he was serious.

He now says he won't form a "deportation force" to eject 11 million undocumented immigrants, at least for now, and that he may save some part of Obamacare. Worth exploring.

How much room is there for bipartisan deals? Probably not much. Trump's policy positions were slapped together in a dash to seduce a Republican base that has lost its way over the last decade. What do Democrats have in common with the likes of Sarah Palin?

And that brings us to the political challenge. Trump has just shown that half the country is with him. To stomp away without at least trying to find common ground with that half would not just be wrong; it would be stupid. It would risk adding fuel to the fury that gave us this disaster in the first place.

As Hillary Clinton put in her gracious concessions speech: "Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead."

What we do not owe him is quiet acquiescence. Trump cannot expect his opponents to meet him in the middle if he hands power to hateful creeps like Bannon.

If he stays that course, he can expect more protest. And he'll richly deserve it.

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.