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

washingtonpost.com

381–390 of 1001 posts

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

#381

It's been an incredible journey and frankly it's amazing he managed to cross the finish line. What a winner! I'm excited about the future of my country. OPTIMISM! No more self loathing and defeatism. Time to rekindle the American dream.

+1 I did not vote for Trump, but I sincerely admire your enthusiasm.

Trump's victory speech was gracious and I hope Americans rally behind him. I intend this to be a general comment: once a candidate wins the presidency, I think it right for Americans to offer best wishes and as much support that they can, given their political views.

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

#382

It's been an incredible journey and frankly it's amazing he managed to cross the finish line. What a winner! I'm excited about the future of my country. OPTIMISM! No more self loathing and defeatism. Time to rekindle the American dream.

The American dream took a beating with Nixon and died with Reagan. You'll need another FDR moment to bring it back, but since apparently the closest thing to FDR was unelectable because he was "socialist" you're fucked.

There's no future for America now. It's going to squander everything it's earned in the last 240 years inside of two.

Way to hand China the keys to the world.

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

#383

This is utter madness. If we're lucky, this wheels fall off this whole enterprise and these people are discredited before they do too much harm. It's deeply frustrating to hear so much crap analysis of what's been going on. If we're really honest with ourselves about what's happening, we're seeing a massive vote for protectionism of a particular demographics that have long enjoyed it. People talk a lot about the forg…

> To be really blunt, Trump's entire track record says "if you're white and wealthy, I've obviously got your back", and his words have said, "if you're white and struggling, it's brown people who stand in your way". In that way, he's managed to get an extremely energetic white vote. yeah and exactly because of this kind of insane, bogus "analysis" you lost. When or if you find back the connection to reality, you will…

When or if you find back the connection to reality, you will realize how Trump actually won.

Trump won by appealing to people who historically felt they were and deserved to be the in-control majority but now feel they are the not-in-control minority, and he won by claiming he would make them feel like an in-control majority again.

It is that simple. It is also simply the case that the people who historically felt they were and deserved to be the in-control majority were white men.

Populism in American politics is nothing new. Nor is populism oriented on racial lines. There is no secret "untouchable" issue lurking behind it. You pick a large group, capable of forming a powerful voting bloc, a group that believes it has reason to feel resentful, to feel cheated out of power that's rightfully theirs, to feel that "elites" are conspiring against them to ruin the country, and you tell them they deserve power and you're going to give it back to them.

Exactly 120 years ago, William Jennings Bryan ran on a similar platform of "restoring" political and economic power to people who felt they once had it, lost it, and deserved to have it once again. In the process he delivered one of the objectively greatest political addresses in American history (the "Cross of Gold" speech). The only difference is Bryan lost the electoral college by about the same margin Trump won it by.

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

#384
post #79
post #15

I, like many, did not see this coming and I am truly afraid for the future of the USA. We sure showed up Brexit, though.

Go USA. I've got to admit it, your insane failure of democracy literally Trumps ours.

The brilliance of our republic is that the government transitions without violence -- where the loser concedes to the victor without fighting a literal war of succession. Don't let the personalities on the ballot this time around confuse you into thinking that they are the embodiment of our republic.

In four years, we'll gather and vote again, and transition peacefully again.

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

#385

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…

Lol what are you on about. Plenty of countries have a very multicultural society, and they do great. Look at Melbourne, Australia, we have huge immigrant populations, and all the different cultures have made this an awesome place to live - E.g. I highly doubt you'd find a more diverse selection of restaurants per capita anywhere else. This election wasn't about race. Don't project your bigotry onto all Trump supporte…

I guess you don't live in one of the suburbs terrorised by the African gangs like APEX? Melbourne is a multi-culti shithole and I'd know, I live here.

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

#386
post #157

This election proved that virtually the entirety of the election prediction space has no idea what the hell it's doing. We live in a world of big data with vast computational resources, and this outcome is somehow an upset—a totally unexpected surprise.

Even modern computing is still vulnerable to the old GIGO phenomenon: Garbage In, Garbage Out.

The way data was collected has some very serious flaws.

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

#387
post #32

This event and Brexit are proof that you cannot shame people into voting how you want. Calling them bigots over and over just galvanizes them if anything.

No it's not. They are merely two data points. Look at Germany. I guarantee you Merkel is going to be reelected next year. Okay, the AFD is going to gain some power but it is outright impossible for them to win the election. But this isn't just about the AFD. What the experts and the media forced down the throats of the people is that there is no alternative to what's currently going on. SPD, Grüne, Linke, FDP don't even need to bother finding a Chancellor candidate.

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

#388

Given that this has been among the most polarizing campaigns ever, could a new, truly centrist third party start building support among the many "no to both" voters and have a chance in 2020? I realize it's crazy to suggest a third party could have a chance in American politics, but prove me wrong.

I'm hoping for general electoral reform. The US is too large and diverse to adequately satisfy its populace with the current system.

In 1994 my country switched from first past the post to MMP.

Incredible fear mongering was put about (and sometimes still is). But despite our near brushes with craziness (like Kim Dotcom almost buying his way into parliament) the situation now is immeasurably better than when we had political parties who did not have to compromise and cooperate. Everyone's more...reasonable.

To an outsider it looks like getting rid of the two party system would be a great thing for the US.

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

#389

Honestly Brexit and Trump both tell me that democracy doesn't work, because the majority of the population is undereducated, bigoted, and has absolutely no idea about how to run an economy - it makes no sense for the working class who don't understand the most basic of economic concepts to influence how the economy is run. I hope he doesn't screw America's economy by preventing skilled immigrants coming in and helpin…

Can you cite an example where a modern dictatorship substantially improved its subject's lives? This kind of demeaning talk is what got us here. Most people are, by definition, of nearly average intelligence. And someone's intellect doesn't preclude them from the right to have a voice in how they are governed just because they disagree with you. I voted for Clinton, so I'm just as disappointed as you are. Let's work…

> Most people are, by definition, of nearly average intelligence

that's... optimistic. doesnt that also mean half the population is below average intelligence?

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

#390

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…

> It is possible to view this as an isolated event or a trend. Coming on the heels of BREXIT this is a trend.

It's a seductive idea but I think you're reading too much into this. It's hard to tell what people are really voting for when there are two options each of which encompasses a bunch of largely disparate policies. I wouldn't be surprised if a large amount of the Trump vote was just a vote against "political correctness" or one against Hillary as a person. Humans sure love patterns.

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