Story highlights Julian Zelizer: Trump has a chance to make good on promise to defy Washington norms

President-elect will need to work on achieving the bipartisan deals that eluded Obama

(CNN) Donald Trump loves to imagine himself as the best dealmaker in America. But many Democrats are not buying it. When they look at the new White House, they see little room for finding common ground. The President-elect ran a campaign that was antithetical to their party values, in addition to, they believe, consistently lying and spreading falsehoods. And now he has assembled a right-wing cabinet, which makes many Democrats' skin crawl.

One option for Trump is to simply ignore the Democrats altogether. Given that he has a united government, and since Senate Democrats can no longer filibuster non-Supreme Court judicial and cabinet appointments, there will be strong incentives to do so. He can put aside all his campaign rhetoric about wanting to break through Washington's gridlock and just govern from the right. (Notably, the Republicans are also now in control of 32 state legislatures and 33 governors, and they will be defending far fewer seats in the 2018 midterm elections than Democrats, so Trump's conservative mandate could be even greater if he so chooses.)

But if he wants to make good on his promise to defy Washington convention, he should adequately address partisan polarization. In other words, Trump should channel his inner dealmaker and try to achieve the kind of bipartisan deals that eluded President Barack Obama, despite his high approval ratings.

What could he do?

The most important policy statement that the incoming administration could make would be a clear and firm commitment that it will not do anything to compromise Social Security and Medicare, two signature measures for the Democratic Party. While Trump promised several times on the campaign trail that he had no interest in touching these popular programs, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has been making noise that he wants to go after these policies. If Trump takes a stand right now, stating that he will not support Ryan's proposals, he might win some Senate Democratic support for his cabinet appointments.

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