This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Let's move on from Trump, and see who will lead America. Who has the courage and the balanced vision to take us through the next few years? Don't get lost in the current daily drama, as serious as it is. No matter who is in the White House, we have bigger fish to fry.

We need someone who is willing to articulate a vision for America that responds to the people who feel left out – yes, that includes everyone from the young black girl in Chicago and the Hispanic undocumented plumber to the middle-class bank teller and even the underemployed white lawyer. It cannot be us v. them. The leader I want must unhook himself from the crack of cheering crowds. He must refuse to pander to party litmus tests, unless the test is "How many problems have you solved?"

News flash: Listening to the polls and telling people what they want to hear is not leading. It is called following. Today's politicians are following the headlines to their doom. They have lost the lifelong Republicans like me, and they have lost a vast number of Americans on both sides.

Here's my message to both parties: Move to the middle and govern.

Leaders need to tell us difficult truths — admit that the problems of health care or immigration are complicated – and then, although it is challenging, think of a solution that gets past the difficulties.

If the 2016 election taught us anything, it taught us that we need to learn more about the people who live next door. We can't live in an echo chamber of our own ideas. Our next leaders cannot be bound to party over country. Their solutions need to be much bigger than anything either party is doing now. They need to take risks and bridge gaps and put together seemingly contradictory positions. Health care solutions will be found with creativity, not name-calling. Clean air solutions will come from both industry and watchdogs.

You might think I am describing an impossible situation, but our history shows us that such an approach is more common than not. This is one thing that Americans are, dare I say, great at doing. In fact, our country has been led brilliantly by people who braided together the right and the left, the haves and the have-nots. I recently re-read the biographies of Washington and Jefferson for inspiration. One of my favorite books is "Team of Rivals," explaining how Lincoln brought his friends and enemies together in his cabinet.

There are even more recent examples, right here in Utah. Believe it or not, Sen. Orrin Hatch co-sponsored the Dream Act to help immigrant children when he was in his prime, and worked with the most prominent Democrat in the Senate, Ted Kennedy, to solve problems. Today, Hatch seems to have lost his way, but originally he took a very broad and enlightened view of consensus politics and we re-elected him. Gov. Gary Herbert recently tried the same with Medicaid expansion, refusing to bow to the extreme right politics of meanness. He tried to genuinely meet a responsibility of government in a measured, thoughtful way. We re-elected him.

We craft these negotiated compromises in our daily lives all the time. We horse trade, we redefine the pie to include something for everyone, and we take a long-term, not a short-term view. Some people even have friends in both parties and we talk to each other calmly. Revive this approach in politics.

I am a lifelong Republican, and it never occurred to me to burn the government down to uphold Republican principles. I thought we were going to solve the economic problems with wise tax policy, not slash and burn. I thought we were going to be compassionate conservatives. There is an enormous group of people like me, people who want ethical leaders of both parties to come together and talk realistically.

You can even be brave enough to tell us things we don't agree with, so long as you have a game plan and a positive goal.

Trust us.

You may protest that none of our "great" presidents had to contend with the 24-hour news cycle. One of the worst ways to kill hope is to exaggerate the problem. The problem is not the news cycle. It is us, the voters, buying into the news cycle. Let's stop rewarding the sensational news by talking calmly and openly about our similarities, not our differences.

Another thing the 2016 election taught is that we cannot afford to be quiet. Don't let the news write the narrative. Speak up. Argue with the news. Talk to your friends and neighbors about solutions, not problems. We are smarter than this lowest common denominator of outrage.

We are in charge of our country and we want it back.

Lisa Michele Church is a lawyer and community activist. She served in the cabinet under both Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Gov. Gary Herbert (2005-2010), and was on the Washington, D.C., staff of Utah Senator Jake Garn (1978-1980). She works as a corporate attorney.