“Bombast and bullying mistaken for strength,” is how Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne described the climate that enabled the recent presidential election.

Dionne delivered the talk “After 2016: Can a Divided Country Heal Itself?” last week at Trinity College while accepting the Moses Berkman Memorial Journalism Award.

In his talk the writer described what makes this election and this president-elect different from all others. Trump, Dionne said, is a “special case…a scary case.”

It is the way in which Trump has “pushed aside norms” regarding the transition to power, that is in part what worries Dionne. He pointed to how Trump is refusing to eliminate conflicts of interest as recent past presidents have by moving their assets into true blind trusts.

Trump’s obsession with “punishing his enemies” is another worry.

His concerns did not stop there, but the talk did not dwell in the negative.

With the election results being what they are, Dionne said “political action can matter.”

That journalists have been underlining the ways this president-to-be’s behaviors are not normal has been heartening to Dionne.

There is a need for “real argument and civil discourse,” Dionne told a room of journalists, Trinity faculty, and students.

He said we must “try to create a more empathetic country,” but that “empathy has to be complete.” For Dionne, that means inclusion of all when showing empathy — from DACA students to those Trump supporters living in West Virginia. Had Hillary Clinton won the election, he would have wanted her to visit all the regions that did not support her, so she could listen and learn about their concerns.