Trump has won 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[jdoe8]

WTF have I woken up to? Everyone is calling it for trump 😭😭😭😭😭

I'm still have trouble sleeping after brexit and now this 😭😭😭😭

FTSE due to open 4% lower on pre trading, well done.

but the world and Europe is changing

a neo Nazi party very nearly won an election in Austria last year ....

there is a refugee crises and France has been under attack from Islamist terrorists that has changed how many people feel

Europe is changing and the way people vote is changing

Sarkozy is moving more to the right to gain votes lets hope that keeps Le Pen out

Trumps support is from these people who just feel disenfranchised. they are fed up of the "mother knows best " politics from people who have never had a job.

This narrative clearly suits people far more than what actually happened...

I haven't read to the end of this thread, sorry if this is repeating what others have said, but what comes to my mind is the words of a Bob Dylan song, circa 1976.

"And the poor white man is used in the hands of them all as a tool
He's taught in his school that the laws are with him to protect his white skin
So he never thinks straight "bout the state that he's in,
But it ain't him to blame he's only a pawn in their Game"

That was written over twenty years ago. And the "poor white man" has still not realised who has caused the "state that he's in".

I'm beyond despair

Apologies for my nonsensical message below. DD wrestled my phone away from me as I was reading the thread.

Although her typing pretty much reflects what I feel this morning. I am speechless, dumbfounded, and shocked. I live in the US (but have Canadian and British citizenship) and am seriously reconsidering my family's immediate future.

If you look at the NY times exit poll data, one comparison is very striking. The income chart shows that the very poor tended to vote Clinton, while above $50,000 it was pretty much 50/50 Clinton/Trump.

Then look at the chart for "family financial situation" and a whopping 78% of Trump voters say they are worse off today than in previous years. 72% of Clinton supporters say they are better off. It's one of the more stark divides in the data.

This is interesting to me and maybe suggests a perceptual disparity. It would be great to see more fine-grained data, but it seems to suggest that a lot of people who are above average in wealth terms nationally (average income in the US is around $50,000) and definitely very much above average in global terms, feel that they are hard done by.

Canadas Immigration website crashed

news.sky.com/story/canada-immigration-website-crashes-as-trump-clinches-victory-10650893

Also in that poll Holly was the question " What do you expect for the next generation of Americans?"

Those who said it would be worse voted Trump. Those who said it would be better voted Clinton.

Any female that voted for Trump really needs to have a word with themselves. Miss you already Obama!

I dislike Trump intensely. I think he will be a disastrous President and an embarrassment to America.

He is a mysogynistic, xenophopic, racist sex pest. He is gobby and is a real loose cannon who I wish could disappear into a hole in the earth never to re-emerge.

I would never wish for anyone to be assassinated though. That is going too far.

What frightens me is not the apparently bigoted, racist, dishonest, misogynistic (I could go on but you get the picture) president but the apparently bigoted, racist, dishonest, misogynistic millions that put out him there.
How can there be 49 millions Americans that are as dumb as that?

Trump won for the same reason that the pro-Brexit argument did in the U.K.: He has offered simple solutions to complex problems, and apportioned blame for current woes which chimes with people's innate prejudices.

He appeals to those who don't understand politics or economics or the complexity of how governments work.

Shovetheholly.

I have a friend who is a teacher, her husband is one too. They've had no pay rises for three years but because of Obamacare their medical insurance has increased 80% to over $1600 a month. She's going to go uninsured this year and pay the $3000 fine.

She's the kind of "well off" person voting for Trump.

Cuba's not happy now.....

elendon - exactly. You look at that data and it's either a 'squeezed middle' whose situation is genuinely worsening or something more insidious - a population in the grip of paranoia, who (despite being some of the richest people on the fucking earth still) believe they are genuinely hard done by. I'm wondering if it's a bit of both.

The question is where do we go from here? We can't let the rhetoric of hate win. If the liberal agenda is disenfranchising too many people what's the alternative? It can't only be this. This is not the end, but we are hurtling towards somewhere terrifying and we need to get off and start again.

We listened to the acceptance speech (whilst shouting at the radio) and then skipped to a music station. They were playing mad world by tears for fears a little light relief on a dire morning.

happycamel - Ooof, that's steep. But why is her health plan so abnormally high? I thought the average was about $400 a month for an entire family? I'm not an expert on US healthcare though!

Personally, I don't think Trump will last the four years for two factors:

There will be a coup within the party to oust him
He is, ironically, not in good health

Because teachers don't get much by way of employer contributions.
They used to be around $400 before Obamacare.

He'll be speaking to people who have worked in politics for decades, they'll all run rings round him

Being in business all of his adult life he will have a different perspective and will see the machinations of the career politicos. Every president has his advisers; DT will be no different.

I think health care was a huge issue that wasn't talked about much.

The people who voted Clinton either benefit from Obamacare or have white collar college educated jobs in blue chip companies.

He appeals to those who don't understand politics or economics or the complexity of how governments work.

What a staggering statement. no doubt you will be equally shocked when similar happens in France, Germany etc. Its not the uneducated masses that voted him in.

The left wing agenda has got to change. its got to look at the who and the why in these decisions. its as much the lefts unwillingness to listen and respond positively to the concerns raised - concerns which they might view as racist, homophobic, sexist etc - that has led to Trump/Brexit as the campaigns for these two things themselves.

Obamacare premiums have increased tremendously, and people are dropping out. The AMA and the insurance companies are very powerful in the USA and they will just not allow the $ ceilings of Medicare and Medicaid to be increased.

You look at that data and it's either a 'squeezed middle' whose situation is genuinely worsening or something more insidious - a population in the grip of paranoia, who (despite being some of the richest people on the fucking earth still) believe they are genuinely hard done by. I'm wondering if it's a bit of both

This is a interesting point, and I think it does relate to what is happening in the UK too. There are two things I think might be relevant. To use the example of the UK, although we are as a nation very well off, what many people see is that things are getting increasingly difficult for the next generation. So for many people, the feeling of being unfairly treated and of decreasing wealth might not be for themselves but for their children and grandchildren, who may seem unlikely to have the standard of living they themselves have had. For example, when I was growing up, it was just assumed that I would be able to buy a house if I got any sort of job. Many people can't make the same assumption for their children. So although we might seem wealthier as a society, home ownership, which was a pretty basic expectation thirty years ago, is now beyond many people's reach.

The other thing I think may be relevant is the effects of the massive rise in inequality (definitely in the UK, not so sure about the USA but presumably similar). In the Spirit Level, the authors show how life satisfaction goes down in countries which get richer if they also get more unequal and that it is relative wealth and the difference between rich and poor which determines levels of happiness, not absolute levels of wealth. (nb read the book a while ago but I think this is what it says).

HappyCamel teachers having a pay rise even three years ago are doing better than most, I earn £6,000 less a year than I did in 2001. The economy has to be fixed because I'm not sure how anyone is buying anything atm