Donald Trump is the president-elect of the U.S. • Hacker News Board

Re: Donald Trump is the president-elect of the U.S.

#141

Post by wtallis » Wed, Nov 09, 2016, 8:03 AM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #51

Such a watershed moment. A few things strike me: * A Republican just won without being very religious and being wishy-washy on abortion. * The loser out-spent the winner by huge amounts. Does money really buy elections? Maybe, but not this one. * The rich abandoned Republicans, but many poor and working-class abandoned Democrats. [1] 1: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/08/us/elections/e...

> "The loser out-spent the winner by huge amounts. Does money really buy elections? Maybe, but not this one."

I would have said attention buys elections, and Trump was the kind of candidate that had the media tripping over themselves to give him free coverage. That definitely seems to explain the primary season, but the general election campaign turned things around a bit by consisting almost solely of negative attention that hurt the candidates when they were in the spotlight. I guess neither candidate could spend enough to buy anywhere near as much attention as the various scandals attracted, and perhaps this campaign season was meaningfully different in overall tone.

Re: Donald Trump is the president-elect of the U.S.

#142

Post by buchanaf » Wed, Nov 09, 2016, 8:03 AM UTC

Whelp, on the bright side future historians will now have an easy way to mark the decline of the United States.

I feel totally numb. As an American, I could not be any more disappointed in the people of this country.

Re: Donald Trump is the president-elect of the U.S.

#143

Post by fsck--off » Wed, Nov 09, 2016, 8:04 AM UTC

thewarrior wrote: post #44

It is possible to view this as an isolated event or a trend. Coming on the heels of BREXIT this is a trend. The attempts at building an interconnected globalised world are beginning to fail. A bunch of elites decided to create their own trans-national utopia unchecked by borders and dismissed all criticism as racist or bigoted. The globalisation project has been rejected by a majority of the population. Whether it is…

The difference between this and Brexit is that more people voted for Brexit than against it, while more people voted for Hillary than for Trump.

Re: Donald Trump is the president-elect of the U.S.

#144

Post by nopinsight » Wed, Nov 09, 2016, 8:04 AM UTC

Brexit and the Trump election share the same root causes:

* Inequality within developed countries, leading to dissatisfaction among working-class voters.

* Globalization benefits accrue largely to capital owners, leaving a lot of workers behind. Many blame immigration since it is the most visible cause. The blame is partly backed by human's xenophobic instincts.

Ironically, Trump's tax plan will mostly benefit the rich. Instead, we need a much better system to mitigate hardships from job losses to globalization and technological change. The 2017 Congress will be very unlikely to enact such policies.

I wonder how this tension will play out in the future...Thoughts?

Re: Donald Trump is the president-elect of the U.S.

#145

Post by navinsylvester » Wed, Nov 09, 2016, 8:04 AM UTC

Saddened to see the world heading towards a very unsavory place. The Brexit effect is going to take us backward and backward. We are going to see more hatred being spread :(. How did we come down to this place?.

#1 Americans policy in the middle east is a total washout. The repercussions of it is starting to rear its head.

#2 The rigidity of the staunch followers of religions in following the rule of the land. I mean the stupid followers. Your country men are also your brethren sort of attitude - not just people of your faith. In the highly inter-connected world if we don't shed hatred and don't learn to be tolerant towards other faiths - we will be doomed.

#3 The voting process needs a re-look. Look what happened with boaty mcboatface, brexit and now US polls. Age shouldn't be the only criteria to allow someone in voting process. I don't think this is a easy problem to solve but we definitely need a rethink.

Re: Donald Trump is the president-elect of the U.S.

#146

Post by pgl » Wed, Nov 09, 2016, 8:04 AM UTC

And I thought Brexit was bad.

Re: Donald Trump is the president-elect of the U.S.

#147

Post by dibstern » Wed, Nov 09, 2016, 8:04 AM UTC

So the world's most liveable city is Melbourne, Australia, we're very far from Trump, much further than Canada, VC firms and tech startups are more than welcome to come on over and enjoy the best quality of life on offer! Hehe

Re: Donald Trump is the president-elect of the U.S.

#148

Post by wyager » Wed, Nov 09, 2016, 8:04 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #66

sho_hn wrote: post #14

So as a European ... Clinton didn't spend enough time in the Upper Midwest expecting to carry those states, but Trump had an actual message for them (NAFTA, etc.) while Hillary didn't, and they don't care that he is racist and sexist, they want their jobs back, so the election was called by a 40+ white demo in an economically depressed region just like old Middle England called Brexit. About right?

TBH I don't think there was anything Clinton could've done to alter this election result, other than not being female and (possibly) not getting involved in so many scandals beforehand. This was a widespread popular-vote miss: Clinton lost across a large number of states (PA, WI, MI, FL, NC) that she had polled ahead in, and even in ones she carried (like NH, ME, or MN) the margin of victory was much less than expect…

> (possibly) not getting involved in so many scandals beforehand

I don't think there's any "possibly" involved here.

While I'm no fan of Sanders, I honestly feel like he could have swept the floor with Trump solely based on the fact that he has an impeccable background and seems like a genuinely nice guy. Instead, the DNC shut out Sanders and used dirty tactics to ensure that Clinton got the nomination. That galvanized a non-negligble number of the young people in my social circle against her.

Re: Donald Trump is the president-elect of the U.S.

#149

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Nov 09, 2016, 8:05 AM UTC

thewarrior wrote: post #44

It is possible to view this as an isolated event or a trend. Coming on the heels of BREXIT this is a trend. The attempts at building an interconnected globalised world are beginning to fail. A bunch of elites decided to create their own trans-national utopia unchecked by borders and dismissed all criticism as racist or bigoted. The globalisation project has been rejected by a majority of the population. Whether it is…

[deleted]

Re: Donald Trump is the president-elect of the U.S.

#150

Post by antirez » Wed, Nov 09, 2016, 8:05 AM UTC

thewarrior wrote: post #44

It is possible to view this as an isolated event or a trend. Coming on the heels of BREXIT this is a trend. The attempts at building an interconnected globalised world are beginning to fail. A bunch of elites decided to create their own trans-national utopia unchecked by borders and dismissed all criticism as racist or bigoted. The globalisation project has been rejected by a majority of the population. Whether it is…

> Also people seem to care a LOT about immigration and preserving their culture

I don't understand that part. Isn't US a sum of N cultures that decided to have a common culture? So why the newcomers can't do what the predecessors did?