So, the result is in. And it’s all over Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, 4Chan, Reddit, everywhere else.
Trump won the election. But what do you think about it?
We’ve given people a few chances to chat about this around the debates. It made sense, since there were discussions popping up in comment threads all over the place. It only makes sense, then, to have another chat given that the result is finally determined.
People are going to spend weeks, months even, dissecting how the polls were so far off base. And there will probably be equal discussion based on where the Democratic party goes from here – as well as what a Trump presidency will look like for Australia and the rest of the world.
This is your chance. What’s your take on the situation? Let us know in the comments, and please be civil while doing so.
Comments
134 responses to “Tell Us Dammit: The Election”
Honestly, I feel like the only thing I can say is, I’m not surprised.
I live in Australia so I don’t care.
You’re kidding yourself if you think it won’t have any impact on us. It may be good, it may be bad, but the health of the American economy and their attitudes to global neighbours affect our economy and safety in many different ways.
Also Steam prices.
Bought a game through GMG yesterday… kinda kicking myself for not waiting a few extra days for the inevitable election reaction. The AUD has jumped 7c since yesterday…
Freemasons run the country!
Calm down, Dan Brown….
Lisa needs new braces!
Dental plan!
(Also she doesn’t say new 😛 )
It’s been like 20 years since she got them, im sure she needs new ones by now.
You should.
This decision will have many and varied global repercussions.
It’s going to be a terrifying four years… if the world even survives that long.
Remember, this is a man who asked during a military briefing why, if the US has all these nuclear weapons stockpiled, do they not use them…
Well. Why aren’t we using them? Let’s target the whales. Gotta nuke something.
its obvious by the downvotes that people dont know a good simpsons quote when they see one.
That’s the second Simpsons reference I’m afraid will be lost on the Kotaku community
Doubt it’s lost (at least, I hope they’re not!). But he’s also doing some masterful trolling on quite a raw subject with many people.
I think the correct word is ‘Welsh’, not ‘whales’.
Nuke the New South Welsh?
Polls were unusual two things come to mind 1) There was a undetectable silent majority or 2) Pollsters skewed figures to help promote Hilary.— as far as how this effects me this is a huge win for against the loudest voices dictating trends however I do feel the consequences might not be worth the “FU”. but I’m not overly worried yet.
I’m wondering if the skewed polls may have worked in an adverse fashion for Hillary – people would have been comfortable with the lead and not bothered. “Everyone else is, so my vote won’t do much”.
I was thinking about the same about all the celebrity endorsements Hilary was getting, it might help get the young vote but might have a adverse effect on the older generation that don’t like being told how to think. Food for thought really.
I’m hearing pro-Trump people either refused to respond in polls or lied. I don’t know if this was because they felt embarrassed by this, or are just generally more private people, or thought that Trump polling poorly would push more people to actually shot up and vote for him.
Another factor is that uneducated white males don’t tend to be factored into polls, and this is Trump’s largest demographic. I don’t mean anything by that, by the standards of the polls I’d fall into that demographic too as I didn’t complete my tertiary education, but that’s just something people have pointed out.
I was strongly anti Hillary and had to refrain from political discussion in a number of areas due to being branded with a bunch of negative stuff i don’t believe in (anti-women, anti-abortion, anti Gay marriage etc.)
Very polarizing discussion unfortunately
It’s been pretty much deciphered by actual voting attendance. Not all the people who said they’d vote for Clinton actually got off their asses and did it. Clinton was highly disliked by a significant amount of her supporters (who were so mostly for party-loyalty or hate/fear of Trump) and those who liked or didn’t mind her much were no overly enthusiastic (facts and logic stir few passions). Trump’s supporters on the other hand included a significant amount of people that were stirred into a rabid frenzy of action-causing excitement either by his fearmongering, his boisterous (if mostly fake) anti-establishment rabble-rousing rhetoric or by actually wholeheartedly agreeing with his racist/sexist/jingoistic posturing.
When you couple that with the fact that voting in America is not only not compulsory, but actively made hostile and a pain in the ass (especially, as it recently surfaced, engineered to be more of a pits to minority groups), you have an election won by he who used emotional manipulation better to motivate his followers to bother to vote.
I think poll modelling needs to be reviewed more generally, larger sample sizes, better weighting of demographics by education, occupation, age, race and incorporating propensity to vote. It’s not that the silent majority was silent but more that their voices were swallowed up in the polls by disproportionate weightings on other factors.
I wonder how much of political analytics and polling generally is influenced by Meehl’s “crud factor”?
This is what was happening. Media were oversampling democrats in their polls causing the numbers that favoured Hillary.
Do you have evidence to support that? I’m curious to read it.
http://www.langerresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/1184a12016ElectionTrackingNo1.pdf
But that distribution aligns with how the American population self-identified prior to the election. They didn’t oversample dems, they sampled them proportionately.
Or, you know, it could be due to the low voter turnout.
Trump got people emotionally involved, therefore they bothered to vote.
While we’ll never know, I’m of the opinion that if the US had compulsory voting then Trump wouldn’t have won.
Neither candidate was great. In Australia when that happens, people vote for the least worst option. In the US, they just don’t vote for anyone.
That last minute FBI email investigation really paid off.
Im actually intrigued.
Trump clearly has proven success when it comes to running a company so it makes me wonder if he will treat the country like business or a something different.
Even though i’m an Aussie, the global impacts from this well be made very apparent over the next few months.
Besides, I just want to see how many of those A listed actors will actually move out of the US like they promised if Trump won
Proven success? He’s declared bankruptcy six times and had to rely on financial bailouts from his father or business friends. He’s doing ok now but consistently lies about his wealth. By all accounts the only reason he’s only considered a billionaire because he values his personal brand between $4bn-$8bn depending on his mood when he wakes up each morning.
Edit: not to mention his failed business ventures, his sham of a university, and the fact I think he has a court appointment this week to answer to some fraud charges.
If I may add, there is also the claim he avoided having to pay tax for over a decade by somehow having a huge write off.
He still payed tax but it wasn’t a lot. He used a loophole in the system. Completely legal. He’s going to be closing that loophole when he gets into office.
The loophole he used was of dubious legality at the time, and is explicitly illegal now. It was illegal for companies to do it at the time, but not explicitly illegal for trusts. The basic trick is that rather than a creditor forgiving a debt (which is treated as taxable income), you swap the debt for stock and then write down the value of the stock.
In the end, it is claiming a tax deduction for other people’s losses. That’s not how things are meant to work.
Sure, it’s not how things are MEANT to work, but that is how it DID work. Legally, he only had to pay what he did. He did not have to pay a single cent more than that.
It’s not really a positive thing to say that he followed the letter of the law instead of the spirit of the law. We typically expect stronger ethical fibre from our leaders.
“Proven success”? He’s great at self-promotion, but his father built the property empire (on the back of government contracts, natch) and Trump inherited that. He borrowed a substantial sum for his first major deal, and had to go back for more. He’s had more failures than successes. He had a 900 million dollar loss…. His “university” is a massive scam. And he didn’t and hasn’t released his tax returns, unlike every other candidate since the mid-70s… so we honestly do not have proof of his success. Just his brand…
He’ll probably beat George W Bush for holidays taken and leave most of the work to everyone else. That’s about the best possible outcome, in my opinion…
A company isn’t a country. The objective of running a country is very different. There are business skills that cross over but Trump’s specific style works against it. He’s extremely brand focused and while that may have done well in the campaigning side it’s not really a way to get anything done. He can’t build the American brand up then license it out to upstart countries.
It’s not enough to look at his successes. You have to look at why and how he succeeded and how that relates to running a country. Personally I look at his biggest successes and see things that would actually work against the country. I seriously question whether Trump can put America before himself.
Also countries tend not to bounce back so well after bankruptcies.
Americans are sick of corrupt politicians. So they elect a man that bragged about corrupting.
Americans are sick of lying politicians. So they elect a brazen liar.
What an absolute clusterfuck.
Yeah, he lied constantly, but we simple hill-folk knew where he stood!
Also, he’s a man. And he has a winning temperament.
If asked what colour the sky is, Clinton would say that it’s a perfect blue and people would decry her blatant lies because it was a bit overcast.
Asked the same question, Trump would declare the sky green. When people incredulously ask him if he really just said that, he’d make a rambling denial without ever making a clear position on what colour the sky is. Two days later, Trump would declare in a rally that the sky is green and his supporters would cheer.
He tells it like it is.
You miss the part where, when questioned about it a month later, he claims that it’s obviously blue, he always said it was blue, and it’s in fact his enemies who said it was green.
you misunderstand what he is saying is the sky will be green
couse that is what nuclear war does
Low and Middle-class Americans seeing their wage gap increase and their situation get worse and feel they’re being ignored elect the candidate that actually acknowledges they have an issue and says he’ll fix it…
Funny thing is though, republicans don’t care very much for the poor so I have doubts Trump will do anything for low and middle class Americans.
Except that same candidate bragged about how he exploited those factors for his own personal benefit. If a man came to your house, smashed your windows and then told you he was a world-class glazier, would you ask for his services?
I get why he appealed to them. It’s a very base-level appeal. The problem is that he’s so blatant about his untrustworthiness that somehow it has become a marker of trustworthiness.
But he wants to lower tax on the rich. Where is the money going to come from is tax drops massively?
He’s not saying it was a smart idea to vote for him or that those people are going to be better off now, he’s just pointing out why the low and middle class voters were so attracted to someone like Trump in the first place. It’s easier than you’d think to get duped under those circumstances.
He says he’ll fix it, but then refuses to say how, or gives sketchy plans that lack detail and wouldn’t work.
The wall will cost ~$20 billion, do nothing, and who will get the construction contract?
He wants to cut the company tax rate in half and cut the top income tax rate by a third. Which will somehow help the working class, he says. Actual nonpartisan economists call bullshit and predict a huge increase in national debt, but he never answered on it.
Politicians both here and in America often make the impossible three-way claim to cut taxes, increase spending, and reduce the debt/deficit. Don’t believe it.
And then there’s the climate denying, and the trade wars, and condoning war crimes via torture and targetting the families of Syrian terrorists, and calls for nuclear proliferation …
And still none of that is about arguing whose personal history is the more sordid.
It’s true, Americans are sick of corrupt politicians. That’s why they voted for the candidate that wasn’t sponsored by businesses and didn’t have to answer to businesses.
That’s right, Trump is basically Karl Marx!
You shouldn’t drink so much early in the day.
What kind of faulty logic says the best way to move the presidency away from business interests is to hand it to the exact kind of dirty businessman that caused the problems in the first place?
Set a thief to catch a thief, apparently? I mean, that was Trump’s answer to the complaints about his having not paid any tax. Basically: ”ll fix it so no-one can do all the unethical shit that I’ve got away with.’
I said it earlier, but I keep having moments where I laugh to myself when I remember that Donald Trump actually became president.
It really doesn’t seem real. It’s a joke. That sort of thing doesn’t happen in the REAL world, just in comedies to highlight how fucking absurd they are.
Trump supporters voted because they felt like they had a cause to fight for. This gave ancient armies the edge, and the same goes for non-compulsary voting.
Even if you think it’s fine for the US to undergo radical internal changes (this doesn’t effect me, etc), International relations are sure to become… interesting.
I wasn’t too phased about it until I read something just before. He is a huge climate change sceptic. And has employed a major sceptic. This poses massive challenges for the protection of the environment as no countries do anything drastic unless the US goes there first.
Also the whole bigotry, racist agendas that he promotes. I feel for everyone not a white middle class male.
yeah, and just last night after he gave his victory speech, you could not wipe the smile of the faces of Bolt and Bernardi happily calling climate change and gobal warming a scam
He hasn’t just “employed a major sceptic”, he’s employed a major sceptic as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
I’m scared for anyone in america that isn’t white, straight and gender binary.
This is the kind of hyperbole that the media encourages and feeds. A small amount of research will show that Trump is not against POC and not against LGBTQI people. http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/what-night-its-been-plus-sliver-of-hope.html?m=1
And even if he were, it’s not like he could magically get congress to enact federal laws to persecute these people.
All this fear and hysteria is just fluff and nonsense.
the republicans control both the senate
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2016/nov/08/us-election-2016-results-live-clinton-trump?view=map&type=senate
and the house
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2016/nov/08/us-election-2016-results-live-clinton-trump?view=map&type=house
They can pass whatever vile law they want
They are not all as crazy as Trump. Heck, at their major convention, some of them didn’t even back him.
Yeah, there was a bit of a joke going where most of them were dodging referring to him by name. It’s important to remember that he isn’t a proper Republican and doesn’t have much deep support within the party. They’re happy to cash in on it while it’s hot but they’re all prepared to distance themselves completely if it blows up in Trump’s face. They want to be able to say ‘if you look at my track record I never personally endorsed him, it was a party decision that my hands were tied on’.
Don’t forget that his running mate is a batshit ultra conservative religious nut who is 100% for conversion therapy for LGBTQI people.
indeed i have guild mates who live in the US who despise Clintion yet voted for her not because they dont like trump but because they are shit scared of pence becoming President should trump resign/get impeached/ god forbid assassinated
He also wanted to see LGBTQI couples jailed for even applying for a marriage licence.
And now he’s the incumbent American Vice President…
They don’t need to enact new persecution laws, they just need to avoid passing laws that PREVENT persecution.
I feel like asking people what they think about Trump is going to lead to a harder day at work for the mods, but he’s a disgusting person.
He’s been recorded bragging about sexually assaulting women, calling all manner of groups all manner of horrible things, his notion of foreign policy is more or less “if they aren’t paying for it I won’t provide it”, he’s said supportive things of some of the most horrific leaders that are currently in power, as a business man he would have been bankrupt for the stupidity of his plans were it not for the fact his name was what made the failed casinos worth anything to the banks he owed shitloads to, he’s an absolute idiot and worst of all he’s an idiot who thinks he’s a genius. Disgusting.
The fact that a single person voted for him is unbelievable and the fact that enough voted for him to get the presidency is legitimately shocking.
As for him being a good businessman, bar the fact that politics and business are very different things, he’s hopeless at that as well. 4 of his businesses filed for bankruptcy and while those may not have entirely been his fault the decisions that led to those bankruptcies were – heavy investment in gambling when it was already on the decline not once, but 3 times, is his fault (or at least he allowed it to happen).
Aside from that, one of the major “business strategies” he’s regularly used is to avoid paying his workers their full wages. Not only that, but he also payed them just enough that it would be more expensive for them to sue than it would be to just accept the loss, going so far as to sue a business to avoid paying the other 50% of the original price of the work. If he tries the same thing on a political stage the result could be devastating, worst case scenario it could incite war of which Trump’s main idea is “bomb the hell out of them”.
He’s ruthless, stupid and has only his father’s extraordinary wealth and a lot of luck to attribute to his position and I sincerely hope that his party have the ability to reign him in.
Excellent post. Might I add – undocumented immigrants were used extensively on building projects he commissioned. He’s a hypocrite of the highest order.
I don’t think those things are in dispute. Hillary was just seen as being dishonest and in the pocket of big business and foreign interests. If you look into the Clinton Foundation at the time that Hillary was foreign secretary, it makes for some interesting reading. Have a look at Clinton Cash as well.
Trump doesn’t smell of roses, but Hillary stinks worse than he does.
Yes, voting for the guy that openly admits to being corrupt is a brilliant alternative to voting for the woman that was leaked as being corrupt.
AT LEAST HE TELLS IT LIKE IT IS
^the favourite saying of gullible morons everywhere
The result was well within the polling margin of error. 1% towards Clinton, she’d have won by about the same margin Trump won by. It was that close.
It’s worrying though. As with Brexit, this will embolden the nastier elements. We’ll see a rise in race violence (and with the simmering tensions over police shootings that lead to BlackLivesMatter, this could escalate fast into riots like post-Rodney King).
Worst of all, a wilfully ignorant vindictive narcissistic short-tempered isolationist demagogue will soon be 3 feet from the “football”… with his party in control of both houses, and a Supreme Court vacancy with likely at least one more vacancy in the next couple of years.
Will Putin take advantage of Trump’s stated isolationism to further his own ends in the Balkans or other border skirmishes? NATO’s lack of action over Georgia or Crimea (or MH17…) might spur him on. Especially with Trump saying he wants to back away from NATO. Or will Trump walk all this back, and cuddle up to Putin?
What I do know is, we’ve had 3 generations since WW2. It doesn’t take a great deal for things to spiral out of control (WW1 was catalysed by the assassination of a minor royal, after all… 17 million deaths later…).
This is a crossroads in history. The more dangerous path was chosen.
I’m far less concerned about a Trump presidency than I am about the fact he appeals to the racists, the sexists, the bigots and misogynists, and those people will feel emboldened with him in charge. Even here in Australia we had university students chanting “grab them by the pussy” until they were ejected from an election party. Trump promised to expel muslims from the country so we can expect to see an uptick in racially-motivated crimes because people will feel like crimes against muslims no longer count. We’ve already had hillbillies in MAGA caps telling people of colour about how they’re going back to the cotton fields once Trump comes into power. Trump can’t control the fact that the KKK supports him, but it sure doesn’t help anything.
Yep. Stochastic terrorism and all that. Just like Palin’s campaign putting target symbols over “target opponents” and then being shocked, I tell you, shocked! when someone actually shot one of those opponents. (Gabby Giffords, for the record). Hateful speech incites hateful actions. Scary shit.
Personally reconsidering plans to travel to America next year… Get the feeling once Trump actualy takes office, it’s just going to lead to more hate and more guns (he is one of those people saying school shootings wouldn’t happen if the teachers and kids had guns to defend themself after all).
Not sure that’s a place I really want to go.
Welp, time to get out the flamethrower.
Americans were given the choice between a neocon who looks shady and an entitled rich guy who looks shady, but isn’t establishment shady.
I don’t even know. Politics is gross. Last night I watched the guy who said he wants to build walls say that he’s going to unify the country. The guy who said he wants to lock her up say how she’s done so much for the country. The same guy who supposedly speaks his mind, straight away says the same traditional nonsense as soon as he gets the job.
I know Hillary would have said the same platitudes about Donald if she won, but my god, if it isn’t some terrifying sideshow that doesn’t mean anything.
I’m glad he didn’t stand up and say he wants to return America to the glory of the Weimar replublic and now let’s lock Clinton up, but god, where’s the truth anywhere and where are the decent people in politics.
I do find it hilarious that people think that trumpet is anti-establishment when he benefits from the establishment in every possible way.
Well that’s the silver lining. I think the people supporting Trump are going to become just as cynical towards this sort of non-politician candidate as they are towards regular politicians. Next time they someone plays the not a politician card they’re going to be much less likely to follow.
My GF also hopefully suggested – in trying to find a silver lining – that maybe the awesome weight of responsibility and his advancing age will inspire some kind of feeling of responsibility. Maybe Obama will say something in the hand-over that touches him. (The office ages and wearies ANYONE who touches it.) And at least there won’t be crazy armed seccessionist/civil war/violence?
It’s pretty hard to find silver linings, here. Repealing state health care, endorsing torture, rejecting the concept of separation of church and state, climate change denial, aggressively hostile and selfish foreign policy… nothing looks good. Nothing.
Yeah, it’s a bit hard finding positives here. I mean maybe if we’re lucky he’s going to do such a bad job internationally that it cuts America’s role in global affairs down to a more appropriate level. Maybe this will be the wake up call that the GFC should have been and we’ll all distance ourselves from the US economy. In both cases we’re talking about big messes with a lot of people getting hurt.
Or if not responsibility, then at least self-aggrandisement, which we know he can’t get enough of. He strikes me as someone with a bottomless appetite for more power, more glory, more everything. Maybe it won’t satisfy him to just be President, maybe he’ll want to go down in history as a great, beloved saviour of a President. Which might steer him towards decisions that won’t be too catastrophic.
And while he’s obviously a repulsive, boorish scumbag of a person, maybe the vileness of his character won’t have too much impact on his actual policies. I also retain some faith that the arcane nature of their system will prevent him from doing anything too crazy.
Well, someone did point out recently that in the weeks leading up to the election he did basically alienate everyone in the Republican party, calling them traitors and scum and threatening their livelihoods.
If you look into the legalities of it, there’s not actually a whole lot a president can actually do, in terms of concrete action, without congressional approval. It’s why so much of what Obama tried to do got stymied by a hostile Republican congress. The only way he was able to achieve anything was by making compromises and deals… I expect much the same of President Fuckface von Clownstick.
I’m very scared at what’s going to happen and kind of alarmed at how many people outside of the US are brushing it off as inconsequential. No matter what happens, Trump’s election has global consequences and many of them aren’t good. It’s going to be an “interesting” 4 years.
Just taking the lead in the election tanked stock markets across the world. He doesn’t even get sworn in until January and he’s already causing problems :/
LOL, most of that was a self-fulfilling prophecy. People thought Trump being elected would tank markets and therefore sold before that happened, thereby triggering the dive. It wasn’t based on fundamentals so much as cynicism.
‘Merica!
‘Nuff said.
I’m feeling very grim today.
Trump deserves a chance. He’s already walking back some of the promises he’s made (like banning muslims, for example). Congress and the Senate will keep him in check (just as designed). People are acting like he’s ushering in the end-times. What a load of nonsense.
I wish I could agree with you but congress and the senate are controlled by republicans and Trump is a climate change denier. We need to take action on the climate now, not in four or eight years time. If he wasn’t lying about rolling back the climate action the US is taking now this is an extinction level event. Sad.
Or in other words, he promised a lot of things to appeal to the majority of voters and then once he got elected he’s backflipping on them.
Which means he’s going to piss off the 50% of the country that voted for him, while the 50% that didn’t are still going to hate him.
You just believed that Trump will make anime real. Well, he won’t. Sorry.
I’m no conspiracy theorist, but my thought is that the Republican party backed him because his polls showed the best chances of winning compared to any other Republican candidate.
I don’t think the Republican party is dumb though.
Given Trumps track record of sexism, racism, bigotry, and so forth, I kind of think that the party is expecting him to get impeached over something or other sooner rather than later.
Say, for something like abuse of power, which is an impeachable offence, and something that is very likely on the cards for him to do given his attitude towards almost everything.
Trying to bully Mexico into paying for the construction of a wall = abuse of power
Trying to silence journalists about what they can and cannot write about = abuse of power
“punishing” those who did not support him (which is a direct quote from Trump) = abuse of power
So, I think the Republicans backed him as he had the best chances of winning, and are going to be looking for the correct time to boot him out and replace him with Pence, who is arguably the better choice of the two, but never would have had the polling power to beat Hillary.
It is only a matter of time before he gets impeached, after all.
I mean, he could probably be impeached for saying that “grab them by the pussy” line, which would have been wonderful had it come out after he was elected.
Either way, I’m certain that it will not last the full 4 years. Maybe 2, at the most.
#MichelleObama2020
#Yeezy2020
I think Kanye could be the only person who could possibly be worse than trump for president.
Michelle Obama I can see being a legit candidate though.
As happy as I’d be to be wrong, I don’t think Michelle has a chance. She’ll carry a lot of the baggage that the right dumped on Barack but with the added complication of her lacking a Y chromosome.
I think the Republicans just bit off more than they could chew. They saw he was popular and jumped on the chance to have someone people actually liked running, without realising what it actually meant.
I will say I think Trump wanted to lose and now wants to be impeached. Judging by his ‘it’s all rigged’ stuff he wanted to get out without having to follow through on anything, write a book about how he was crucified for telling it like it is and keep the Trump brand relevant.
You had me until Yeezy.
well – impending rape case in court next month for him soooooo…
I for one welcome our new overlord !!!!!
We all know its the rug that is running the man, Trump is just the front for an alien race of super intelligent hair pieces set for total world domination.
Seriously though, while I can see the reasons for his election, I struggle to see the merit behind it. My main concern is for the people who voted him in and the consequences they may face. Obama Care for example has benefited the working class the most, yet Trump has stated he will axe it.
But at the end of the day I am not informed enough to know all the ins and outs and to judge from the outside. They voted him in and we should give him a chance before we completely write him off, you just never know
Also if people really think that the president runs the country and can just do what he wants then they need to look at the struggles Obama has had trying to get anything done over his terms. Trump has already started to soften his approach as seen in his acceptance speech.
The sun still came up today, as it will tomorrow and hopefully still will in 4 years time. this is not the first time America has elected a complete knob to the highest office.
Obama had issues because the republicans controlled the senate (basically the same thing we have here in Aus where the libs have got nothing done for years because the senate is mostly labour, greens and minor parties).
Now though Trump will be coming in with a republican controlled senate, so the theory is that he will have free reign for any crazy racist ideas he has. We’ll just have to wait and see really though.
There are two things that are markedly different between this term and the previous 2. Trump will have a sympathetic Congress, and the ability to appoint two sympathetic Supreme Court judges. That means there are significantly fewer checks and balances against any of his more radical policies.
Real Life became an episode of The Simpsons so gradually, I didn’t even notice!
Legitimately afraid for the future of the world. That’s how I feel.
Depending on how much damage gets done, theres a very real chance that trump will only have power for 2 years, as in 2 years time the house and senate will be up for grabs again. So if trump and republicans really fuck shit up you can be sure as hell that democrats will regain control of the house and senate.
The other thing to note is that while the republicans control the house and senate, not all of them support trump and that has the ability to completely destroy the republican party as a whole.
Another thing to point out is the simple fact that Both Obama and Clintion are actualy to the right of Saint Ronald Regan, and yet trump and republican supporters call them left wing wackos, which goes to show just how far to the right the republican party currently is.
It’s an awful, terrifying result, heralding dark days for civil rights, social welfare and a lot more… but a result they had coming.
Seems to me like only 25.5% of the US got to decide the direction of their nation, primarily because 50% of the country couldn’t be fucking bothered to vote. You cannot put a HUNDRED MILLION VOTERS failing to show down to ‘voter suppression’. Apathy was the overwhelming majority.
Additionally, I reckon it turns out that the winners in globalization and progressivism are outnumbered by those whose lives have been getting materially worse, but who it’s been politically acceptable to ignore/mock because they were previously seen as privileged. Much the same as the reasons behind Brexit.
Conversation being had in the US right now, previously had in the UK:
“Globalization/progressivism is great for the nation overall, on average!”
“Maybe, but we’re worse off, and we don’t like it.”
“Yes, but it’s better on average, so you’ll just have to accept your sacrifice for the greater good. You’ve had it good, it’s someone else’s turn, now. Like the 1%.”
“Fuck that and fuck you for saying it. I’m voting for anyone who says otherwise; true or not.”
“Holy shit there’s a lot of you. HOLY SHIT. Do you realize what you’ve done?”
“Don’t know, don’t care. If we stayed YOUR course, we were going to stay worse off. At least this way we get to roll the fucking dice.”
I see a lot of folks complaining that it’s about racism and fear-mongering, but I think that’s (ironically) close-minded; dismissive of what has turned out to be the majority. I refuse to believe that the majority of voters are motivated by hate and bigotry. I really do think that whatever hate vote might’ve existed would’ve been eclipsed (/bolstered by) the simple fact that a lot of folks were simply unhappy with how their fortunes have been getting worse under the establishment, and voted against it. I’m pretty sure that’s how Trump even got past the primaries. He labelled all his career politician opponents as, ‘the establishment’ and promised to not be them. And Hillary (a corrupt, career politician who nobody in their right mind would’ve voted for if she had faced any opponent other than that cancerous human cheezel) bloody exemplifies the establishment.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head RE: the mindset of the Trump voter. And that leads to two very important points:
1) They aren’t struggling because of misgovernance, but rather a natural evolution of the economy away from low-skill manufacturing jobs (or equivalent). There’s no point waiting for someone to bring these jobs back (they won’t), rather they need to find their place in a post-industrial country like the citizens of most other developed nations have already done.
2) Even if it was possible to get back to the “good ol’ days”, do they honestly think Trump is the one to do it? You say that Clinton exemplifies the political establishment (and you’re 100% right), but Trump represents the economical establishment to a tee. And it was the latter that truly got them in the position they’re in today.
I’m more curious about how the analysts all got it so wrong, being an analytics professional, but honestly I have no idea how it’s going to work out.
I can say though that the minute his voting base realise how powerless and impotent he is as president and when things don’t go their way as quickly as they like then they’re going to crucify him.
I wouldn’t get my hopes up on that. When nothing comes from his Presidency he’ll pin the blame on vague politics and how awful the system is. Just look at what he was saying when he thought he was going to lose and you’ll see the spin that’s coming. From day one he had a target on his back, was under fire from both sides and bla bla bla it’s not my fault.
Unfortunately I think even if his supporters see through it they’re not going to care because they already see all politicians as liars and cheats.
I’m overjoyed. With Trump elected, WW3 has been averted.
Averted by electing the guy who says he will ‘destroy ISIS’ (though has no plan to do it other than: kill them), believes America’s allies rely on them too much and should pay for help instead, says he will be the one to keep Russia and North Korea in check (that’ll go well) and the best part – he has nukes at his fingertips whilst is known for getting baited into arguments by a single tweet…
I’m not sure how you can really think we’ve averted anything at this point, the shit just hasn’t hit the fan yet.
You’ve been drinking the Wikileaks Kool Aid haven’t you?
Say hi to Uncle Vladimir for me.
This is probably the first time I’ve ever read “Wikileaks Kool Aid”.
I used to have faith in Assange, but now I think he’s just dribbling things out and making big accusations on tenuous links to stay relevant. Where is this big revelation he was going to release on election day?
Gotta keep the donations coming in somehow, I suppose.
That’s the point it’s gotten to unfortunately. Wikileaks started with grand plans of being some sort of objective arbiter of truth.
Now they’re just as biased as the “mainstream media!!!111one!” they started out opposing.
I am of what is likely the unpopular opinion that things aren’t going to change much.
I am also of the seemingly very popular opinion that this is entirely the DNC’s fault, and Sanders could have won easily if the DNC weren’t so blatantly corrupt.
I’m with you. You want to blame someone? Blame the Democrats. The rigged the primaries to push someone who they think was entitled to the office. Should’ve let Bernie run a fair race.
America survived Regan
America survived George Bush Jr
America will survive Trump
All the doomsaying going on right now is stupidity at it’s highest. The Liberal Left are just acting like a bunch of crybabies because their golden chosen one didn’t win. Seeing things like holding New York hostage (Sorry… “Protesting”) and things like #NotMyPresident are a big part of the reason white, middle-class America voted in droves for Trump. Trump is already bending the to whim of his party btw, changing election promises to be more realistic.
After months of watching the vocal majority bitch about Trump, threatening to move to another country if he came to power, and then watching them all cry on live TV, I couldn’t stop smiling.
Best American drama ever. 10/10. Can’t wait for season 2 where they build the wall, I wonder if they’ll use CGI.
like any president, he will be a puppet and a scapegoat but with a higher chance of impeachment. His flamboyant nature will split his party and they will not achieve much. it’s a pity that the primary focus of a new government seems to be undoing the good work done by its predecessor.
I woke up this morning and was like, Did that just happen?
I’ll be watching the $US closely over the next few months.
Here’s to hoping the time to buy things from the States will be upon us soon!
It’s now OK to grab women by the Pussy! Happy times!
Hillary Clinton is not the squeaky clean holier than thou person that the mainstream media makes her out to be. I am in no way saying Trump is the better option. I just want to provide some perspective about Hillary that mainstream media has either missed or largely chose to ignore reporting. Firstly Hillary has conflicts of interest, her campaign used donations from the Clinton Foundation which receives donations from major arms dealers/contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman as well as from foreign countries such as Saudia Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Algeria, Oman, countries that have very poor women’s rights, harsh oppressive laws and who have been criticized for having poor human rights record by her own State Department. Secondly her foreign policy record leaves a lot to be desired; she advocated for the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003 under false pre-tense of WMDs, she was a key player in the overthrow of the Gaddafi government in a US backed coup de’tat. She also advocated for a “regime” change in Syria and advocates supplying arms to the “moderate rebels”. Look at those countries (Iraq, Libya, Syria) now, nothing but anarchy, violence which has allowed “moderate rebel groups” like ISIS to from. She also says she would impose a no fly zone over all of Syria. Enforcing a no fly zone ultimately means going to war with Russia and Syria. She also said that she is willing to conduct nuclear strike against Russia and Iran. That’s all I wanted to point out. I have no idea why mainstream media failed to highlight this.
A man who admitted sexually assualting women is now president.
A man who has been accused of assault by numerous women, whist claiming it couldn’t be true because they’re not hot enough for him.
A man who said it’s OK to refer to his own daughter as “a piece of ass”.
A man who would brazenly walk into the dressing rooms of Miss USA contestants so he could see them naked.
A man who mocked a reporter’s disability on television.
A man who wants to build a wall that will keep out minority workers their economy depends upon, and outright ban other minorities he doesn’t like from being able to enter the country.
A man who said someone can’t be a war hero because they were caught by the enemy.
A man who tried to discredit his Republican rival by saying his father was involved with the JFK assassination.
A man who invited Russian hackers to break into the Democratic email system.
A man who belittled the parents of a slain US Muslim soldier because he had been critical of him.
A man who thinks an acceptable way to deal with terrorists is to kill their families.
A man who is such a great businessman he has been bankrupted 6 times.
A man who refuses to accept scientific consensus because it doesn’t match with his pre-conceived biases.
A man who uses money from his charity to settle legal problems and to buy massive portraits of himself.
A man who has been proven to have consitently lied at every step of his campaign.
Oh, but at least he’s not Hillary. Because… email, and shit.
Yes I agree, Trump is definitely all of those things as it was so well covered and highlighted by mainstream media. Yet mainstream media does not question the content of the Hillary Clinton email leaks. Why? The content and implications of those leaked emails is absolutely frightening. In those leaked emails Hillary Clinton talks about waging a proxy war of aggression on Iran through Syria by overthrowing the Assad regime, destroying the Iran-Syria defence pact thus weakening Iran and helping Israel. These emails go all the way back to 2011 by the way. So basically the civil war we are seeing in Syria right now is not to help the people of Syria and to destroy ISIS but to indirectly weaken Iran and help Israel! I am absolutely outraged by this and so should everyone but no one is because the mainstream media has failed to bring this to the public’s attention. Why?
Have you actually read or watched anything on the election? Nobody has been suggesting she’s squeaky clean. Even back when it was Sanders vs Clinton she had huge issues relating to distrust even amongst her own supporters.
The e-mails have been covered pretty heavily, they kept getting brought up right until the end, but the problem is nobody really cared about the content. It only ever gained traction as a meme. Shorthand for ‘Hillary participates in the sort of behind the scenes backroom bullshit all politicians do’.
Meanwhile Trump was feeding them new bullshit headlines every morning to keep his name relevant. It’s not a bias towards a candidate it’s just someone whose campaign was built on grabbing the spotlight vs a boring politician. Someone who got caught doing something wrong vs someone who set out to push buttons.
American chiming in.
I’m honestly scared. Not totally because of Trump, but because Republicans control the house and senate now for 2 years. Within two years, if they follow their platform, I could be forcibly divorced from my husband. My friends who are transgender could face increased discrimination. I mean, fuck, Pence wants all gays forced into conversion therapy. Which by the way is torture (I went through it as a kid).
What’s immediately scary is how emboldened assholes are now. My best friend had to flee a bar last night cause some dude started screaming faggot at him.
So how do I feel? I don’t know. Vulnerable. Angry. Scared. That about sums it up.
I was reading up on some things about how bad it can possibly get, and if it helps, it turns out that a President cannot overturn Supreme Court rulings, only appoint what they think will be sympathetic justices. And from there, they STILL have to consider it as a point of law, meaning deciding on the cases brought before them. And they have the weight of precedent to argue against as well. Marriage equality seems safe for the time-being.
I hope so