Oh boy. Right, okay. So, I'll reply individually to people below, but to everyone generally: please go back and actually read what I said. Nowhere did I say I support Hillary (in fact, I called her a non-candidate too). Nowhere did I say Donald Trump shouldn't be president, considering he was, indeed, democratically elected in. I have no idea where the hell you got this from, other than making the assumption of "he doesn't like Trump so he's a filthy fucking frothy-mouthed fanatical leftie."
My point was that those who are brushing this aside as "oh, meh, the results of Trump's presidency probably won't be so bad, don't be hysterical" are completely ignoring the actual reason people are so shocked and appalled. They aren't appalled because they think WWIII is gonna happen, they're appalled and sick to the stomach at the thought that Donald Trump is the face of the US, and is now how the rest of the world sees the US. Statistically, I now have to believe that if I talk to an American online, any one of you, that you actually went out and voted for Trump, and that you agree with his lunacy. That's what is making people feel ill, and it's not hysterical to feel that way. To imply people hate the result because they're hysterical and think WWIII is gonna happen is just shooting down straw men rather than focusing on the reality that an absolutely vile, disgusting human being and joke of a "politician" is now your leader, and that
that is a very bad thing.
Basically: I'm less pissed off that Trump won, and more pissed off at those people who agree that Trump is abhorrent, and yet are also saying that anyone who is seriously, deeply concerned about that fact is "hysterical". Sorry, no - people absolutely should be sick to their stomach at the thought of being represented by such a reprehensible man.
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That's only half the story though, isn't it?
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I agree completely with this. Working class are still the most important voting block, and they let the world know last night.
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I fundamentally believe that "protest voting" is fucking moronic. Screwing over your entire country by voting for someone/something you know is goddamn terrible and an inferior choice just to stick your finger up at the establishment is stupid in the extreme. The catharsis gained by lashing out and expressing your dissatisfaction with the establishment with this sort of protest vote is vastly outweighed by the sheer damage that is usually caused by said vote. This is exactly what I am seeing in my own country, with Brexit.
Anyone who protest-voted in this way, who voted for Trump without believing his policies were best, has condemned themselves and their neighbours to
four years of absolute travesty for the sake of essentially throwing a childish tantrum. The working class voting Trump just to assert that they are an important demographic, just to say "PAY ATTENTION TO ME LAH-DEE-DAH", is, again, just stupid, especially as they one of the demographics who have a high chance of suffering under his presidency. If you're dissatisfied with the Democrats, there are better ways to go about fixing what they're doing wrong than voting for someone you know is probably going to be worse.
So, the majority of Americans either: genuinely think Trump is a legitimate candidate and they like his policies; or they voted for him in protest, the flaws of which I have highlighted above. Neither of those is exactly endearing me to Trump voters, and, by extension, to the American populace who majority-voted him in.
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Learn to read, please. <3 See the beginning of this post. To summarise: nowhere did I say Trump shouldn't be president now that the majority have voted for him. Nowhere did I announce who I supported in this race. If you want to participate in conversation, be sure you've actually read and understood what a person is saying rather than making blind assumptions such as "doesn't like Trump" = "Clinton supporter" = "thinks Trump should be impeached immediately", or whatever it was you were even trying to imply I thought. Thanks.
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@Vilageidiotx @Buddha, sorry, but just to clarify, the fact that I'm British doesn't mean I don't care about the results of this election or that I don't respect the American electorate's right to vote in whoever they want.
In terms of caring, this election affects the whole world, unfortunately - believe me, I thoroughly wish that wasn't so, but it's naive to pretend it isn't the case. Furthermore, I have a lot of genuinely close friends in the US who I am concerned for as well, and had been considering moving there to complete my PhD in a few years' time, so I have a high degree of personal investment too. Please don't be so convinced that anyone not on the American electoral register has no real, vested interest in this election.
In terms of respecting the electorate, I fully believe that democratic decisions should be upheld. That is, as a random example, why I am somewhat concerned about the current legal challenges around the government enacting Article 50 without consulting Parliament, and the potential ramifications of the decision swinging either way in our Supreme Court.
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It all begs the question - if Donald Trump is so fucking bad and unsuited for president, how the hell could a shrewd politician like Clinton lose in the first place? Maybe, just maybe, the DNC should have chosen Bernie or literally anyone that didn't have so much dirt on them instead.
Secondly, playing the blame game is precisely why this shit is happening. No, people aren't dumb and bigoted for voting Trump, they're just unsatisfied with the current status quo, as are people in the EU. Why do you think Brexit happened? Why are right-winged populist parties gaining traction throughout Western Europe in countries like France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and so forth? It's easy to dismiss everyone you don't agree with as a bigot and a racist, but the truth runs much deeper.
Please see what I said about "protest voting" above. I feel exactly the same way about the Brexit vote, and about the growth of the right-wing throughout Europe. You're right; people aren't racist bigots. They're still idiots for protest-voting on major issues out of petulant dissatisfaction, though.
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Lastly, a message to you folks that have been plaguing my social media feeds (and the Guild's status bar) all day - politics is a game of logic. The moment you start getting emotional is the moment some politician starts using that emotion for their own agenda.
Could not disagree more. Logic should temper emotion, but not eradicate it.
There is an obvious moral and philosophical aspect to policy and legislation - perhaps even more so in the US than in many other places. Moral views in particular are, and
should be, guided by emotion to a large extent. There are many, many hypothetical examples I could give to demonstrate this, but I'm sure you're familiar with most of the arguments surrounding such things.
It logically follows that you cannot and should not eradicate emotion from politics. You are right in that emotion can be manipulated; and this is why I say logic should always temper emotion. But to say it should be eradicated completely is to encourage a society devoid of any sense of moral or philosophical imperatives in favour of pure efficiency, which tends to end badly when we start doing things like killing off everyone above retirement age.
And, therefore, I stand by my original point/post: the idea that people who do not agree with Trump and his moral character (which, in my opinion, is the vast majority of the electorate considering how many protest-votes I think likely came out) have a right to, and probably should, feel pretty sickened by the fact that he's now been declared the pinnacle of the US' entire culture.
