What do you think of Donald Trump?

[PotooGryphon]

:Sarcastic tone: America broke ground last night and proved how progressive we are as a nation, that ANYONE can become president. Even angry small handed short sighted orange bigot with a ferret as a hairpiece.

Correction: Anyone but women can be president. We still haven't progressed enough for that yet. Ugh...

Honest thoughts- I think it's really bad he's president, however I would have lost sleep with a Clinton presidency as well. (Her lack of a stance on DAPLE and Pay-to-Play email leaks have been disturbing). Both sides have frightening stances and it's time for people to rally and stand for their own self interests. The government hasn't been working for the people but for donors for a long time now. Citizens will need to keep aware and push back on both the parties.

[TristanJensen]

I think he won the election and
gulp
we should respect that.
When people were supporting Hillary they demanded Trump show repect for her when she won(not that it happened, obviously). It's only fair they give him the same courtisy.

I spent the last month looking into both of them and they both have very big, very dangerous flaws. They both scare me, and even more their supporters on both sides.

We're dead either way so we can either head towards the fire in tears or accept it and maybe it won't be so bad.

Also yeah, Sanders was cool, he should have won

[VermillionWorks]

I'm both shocked and not shocked this happened. Not enough people liked Hillary because of the email scandal and DNC stuff, so there was a lot more third party votes and people not voting. Even I didn't really like her all that much, but I voted for her anyway because I think Trump is far worse and liked the idea of Bernie Sanders being budget chairman. Nonetheless, those lost votes were important, as the results prove.

(By the way, I'm not pushing blame on anyone here, if anything, I think they should've picked Bernie Sanders as the democratic candidate with his more progressive ideas and cleaner record. XP They kind of shot themselves in the foot by sticking with Hillary.)

I don't know what this is going to bring, but I don't think it'll be as easy for Trump to be an outright dictator as many people seem to think. Half of the country is highly aware how wrong this is and can stand up and make things difficult for him, when necessary. However, I understand why people are scared, too, considering some of his ideas and fear of them going through, and how a chunk of his supporters are, but we have to just move on now. Prepare for the worst but hope for the best.

[SirHellsir]

I'm scared
With hillary there was an idea of how bad the situation was going to be.
But with trump, how much of his barking can he actually do and how much more shit he will come up with

[mintycanoodles]

that moldy touped yam is not and never will be my president.

[scythe]

Final thoughts. This result should not surprise anyone who's been following alternate, independent media. The writing has been on the wall for months now that the polls were at best fundamentally flawed and at worse, purposely skewed to show Hillary had a chance. Talk to any American outside of the liberal bubble states, and there was very little, if any, evidence that Hillary was getting anywhere near the same level of support that Trump had.

I think another Clinton presidency would have been a disaster not only for America, but for the world. Based on the mountain of evidence I've seen, I truly believe that she is the most corrupt candidate ever to run for the presidency. If she'd have won, I do not know what millions of American parents would have told their children when they asked them about the morality of cheating and lying, even when you believe you're doing it for the 'greater good'.

Of course I have no idea what a Trump presidency will mean for America and the world, no one does. And anyone who says they do is kidding themselves. He's a complete unknown. This has never happened in the history of the world. One thing I do know is this though, he won't become a dictator. For one, his list of Supreme Court Justices are dedicated to upholding the constitution as it was written, but most importantly, the United States is uniquely designed and exists in such a way that a dictatorship cannot happen. They're the only country with true freedom of speech, and crucially, the populace is armed to the teeth. Even if you believe Trump wants to turn the US into some despotic banana republic, which I personally think is hogwash, he simply couldn't do it. There are just too many checks and balances in place.

Lastly, I would like to remind people that this is how a constitutional republic works. If you're on the left, no, you're probably not going to like many of the policies Trump is going to try to institute. But understand, those on the right haven't liked many of the policies Obama and Bill Clinton instituted. That's just life. That's democracy. I'm sorry to have to say this, but you were simply deluding yourself if you thought that the left was going to be in power going on into perpetuity. But here's the best part of it all, if you don't like what Trump spends the next four years doing, you'll get your chance to vote him out in 2020.

To Americans I say this, listen to your current president. Whatever happens, whatever the result, the sun will still come up tomorrow.

[NickRowler]

there was very little, if any, evidence that Hillary was getting anywhere near the same level of support that Trump had.

Not true, technically Clinton got the most votes. Trump however won the electoral. If anything, the two were more or less tied.

People on the right are just as guilty when it comes to being in a bubble. And just as guilty as shoving their fingers in their ears when someone on the other side tries to speak.

[scythe]

That was a pretty blatant quote mine Nick. Why didn't you include the qualifying part of my sentence? I specifically said there was little evidence of her support outside of the scattered, liberal bubbles, which as we can all see, was reflected in the final result. The bulk of her support, unfortunately for her, is situated within those pockets, which really nullified their impact on the electoral college.

And yes, both the left and right are equally guilty of existing inside bubbles, but I feel that in this current climate, where the media and establishment is so left leaning, the right have the advantage of being familiar with two bubbles at the same time, which is why this result is such a surprise to the left. They rarely take a step into the right wing bubble to have a look around. This result isn't a surprise to anyone on the right.

[joannekwan]

What concerns me are the citizens of middle America of middle class and lower who think Trump will deliver on what he says. I'm aware than many citizens of Virginia are happy for his win as he promised to bring the coal industry back and running. But how viable is that? We might as well try and revive the damn cotton industry! Coal is a dying form of energy, it's barely viable and the pollution it produces is just tremendous. I doubt Trump and his administration will do much to help middle America, sure they plan on cutting taxes, but that only really benefits the richest of Americans. It will only widen the gap between the rich and poor. And if they get their way and stop Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood, where will the underserved and underprivileged of society get their medical aid?

[scythe]

I think Joanne, if Hillary's campaign had spent more time arguing like you just did, instead of just calling everyone who disagreed with them racist, sexist, homophobic, islamophobic, xenophobic deplorables, she might have just had a chance.

In this race, the Trumpkins were always going to vote Trump and the Hillbots were always going to vote Hillary. The independents were well and truly on the fence. Now, imagine you're an swinging voter, unsure who to go for, thinking you could go either way. Now imagine one side is calling you a KKK suporter just for considering voting for the other. You KNOW you're not a KKK supporter. They're telling you that you're 'threatened' by the thought of a female president. You KNOW you're not. They're calling you anything under the sun just to persuade you not to vote Trump. People don't appreciate being called things they're not, and this is a huge reason why she lost.

[NickRowler]

Sorry, my bad....this whole thing has sort of put me into a deep depression. I know that people on the right might just call me a "liberal cry-baby" (even though I am independent and don't call myself a democrat) but I am actually scared about my future because I might have to deal with major depression and no health insurance in 2017. I'm also worried I might spiral back into my eating disorder....and I don't want that.

[joannekwan]

Yeah there was way too much mud-slinging on both sides. If people just presented the policies and platforms of each candidate with pros/cons and how they would affect the general public it would have been a more palatable election. The over-blown caricatures of both sides just made the whole thing a debacle after the primaries were over.

[scythe]

Yeah, I get it, losing is the worse. 10 years ago I would have probably described myself as far-left, then I was just left, then I was a centrist. Now I take the political tests and they tell me I'm centre-right. The thing is, my values and ideas on policies haven't changed much at all except for in a few key areas. That's how much the political climate has shifted over the past decade. I mean, remember when Hillary and Obama were anti-marriage equality? You should, it was less than three years ago. I was vocally pro marriage equality a decade before then but now I'm a right-wing nut job just because I disagree on border security? Huh?

And you're right, there is a huge financial crisis looming, the likes of which we may not have previously seen since the great depression, so even if your candidate had won, now would not be the time for celebrations. There's a huge storm of instability on the horizon and neither candidate could have stopped it.

[miesmud]

I don't care much for Trump nor Hillary, because I'm European and there's nothing I can do. But I have so much trouble understanding the voting system in the USA. It's like really twisted, how can Trump win when Hillary had more votes? And why can you only choose out of two people to become president in the first place? Why can you only be president for 8 years? And why can only people with TONS of money become president? I really don't understand America.

I'd say I'm happy I'm not American right now, because I don't think many good things will come from a president that is so filled with so much anger and hate and gives people unrealistic promises. But since the US has such a big influence on the ENTIRE world, I'm also very mad WE, fellow earthlings, haven't got anything to say about it.

All I can say is that I hope everything will be okay, I have no idea how much a president really CAN do, but I think it takes more than one man to end the world. Once the hate from these elections has cooled down I hope people can really focus on their jobs, friends and family again, because love and happiness is what matters the most in the world. Especially in harder times : (

Stay strong everyone!

[NickRowler]

I actually don't like Clinton, I never liked her, I always felt she seemed robotic. But the thing is, I dislike Trump far far more.

I do support a lot of issues that might make me seem that I am extremely-left. However, I don't hate Republicans, I mostly just dislike Republican politicians, but then again, I don't like Democratic politicians either. I was actually on the fence for Obama/McCain however I was too young to vote so it didn't matter.

@miesmud Um, it is a bit complicated to explain here. There are probably books or articles on it.

[heterodont]

how can Trump win when Hillary had more votes?

hillary won the popular vote, meanwhile trump won the electoral college votes - scythe explains it better than i did v

And why can you only choose out of two people to become president in the first place?

there are more than two options, it's just the democratic & republican party are wayyy bigger than any of the third party candidates. so they get the majority of the vote/air-time/etc. bc of how much power they've accumulated.

Why can you only be president for 8 years?

its because of an amendment, an amendment that didn't get enacted until FDR who served a total of 4 terms (16 years) because of all the work he was doing to pull america out of The Great Depression (people saw how effective his methods were, so he kept winning the election). Every president before FDR had the option to run for a 3rd term, but none were successful in achieving it.

And why can only people with TONS of money become president?

it basically boils down to money = power. running a campaign is expensive.

[scythe]

How can Trump win when Hillary had more votes?

The electoral college is set up basically protect the population from the tyranny of the majority. The US is a vast, heterogeneous society. If it was simply based off the popular vote, then tens of thousands of small, rural counties would be at the mercy of the large cities, where most of the population lives. Going off the popular vote would pretty much disenfranchise tens of millions of voters. The needs of a Kentucky farmer are vastly different from the needs of a San Fran hipster. The system is set up so that the politicians are forced to represent everyone in the country. At least, that's how it's supposed to work, it's far from perfect.

[miesmud]

Thanks for explaining it, I did know about the electoral vote thing, I just think it's unfair and it doesn't make sense in my eyes @scythe I see, I still don't understand how it's more fair though. If there's more of a specific type of voter just means their choice should win right? I mean there's more of them, and democracy means everyone gets to vote, and most votes win, so dividing it into groups kind of ruins the idea of democracy???

[scythe]

In small, homogenous societies, that would make sense. But the US is anything but that. What you're essentially saying is because there are slightly more people in LA, San Fransisco, NY, Chicago and a small number of other cities than the rest of the entire country, then the people in those cities should have the ultimate say on how the rest of the country is run. You shouldn't confuse a democratic voting system with a democracy. America isn't a democracy and no one would want it to be. It's a constitutional republic. To understand the danger of the tyranny of the majority, just look to the developing world. The electoral college is one of many checks and balances I was talking about earlier which blocks the US from sliding into theocracy, autocracy or dictatorship.

But you're right, the electoral college isn't optimally fair. In Australia we have a similar but superior system. We too have electorates, but instead of a simple 'tick who you like best' option, we have to arrange several candidates in order of preference. Mathematically, the preference system will always result in an electoral map which better reflects the will of the people.

[Zanreo]

Well, pretty much: