US Presidential election 2016

[Carver]

Fantastic result!

First brexit and now this, the liberals and elitists are losing and they only have themselves to blame for straying too far to the left and away from the middle and forgetting about the masses of ordinary people.

Whether Trump can do the business or not we will have to wait and see, but one thing for sure is that people are sick of the establishment and want change.

 

[Jockney]

that you have liberals calling trump supporters stupid and awful is the most hilarious irony. Liberals are why trump is where he is now, they're why we're about to enter into a new epoch of right wing authoritarian hegemony across the western world.

11 European general elections in 2017 with many of those countries likely to elect far right candidates The tide is about to turn against us big time. It's going to be devastating unless we mobilise.

 

[Modernist]

that you have liberals calling trump supporters stupid and awful is the most hilarious irony. Liberals are why trump is where he is now, they're why we're about to enter into a new epoch of right wing authoritarian hegemony across the western world.

11 European general elections in 2017 with many of those countries likely to elect far right candidates The tide is about to turn against us big time. It's going to be devastating unless we mobilise.

We're to busy fighting amongst ourselves. From the comment section of the guardian.

"This is really so easy. This could have ALL been avoided. How to stop Trump:

1. STOP, for the LOVE of GOD, STOP peddling identity politics. Trump voters - working class people - despise it. They know what you're doing - it's obvious.

2. STOP treating ethnicity, gender, sexuality and religion as a proxy for class warfare; you are trying to displace them by creating a new under-class and stoking ethnocentrism, gynocentrism and tribalism for the purpose of manufacturing a new electorate and a globalised, supranational governance that NO-ONE wants.

3. STOP speaking about groups, start speaking about individuals (you know, actual liberalism).

4. Stop polarising ALL debate. Just because you aren't rabidly pro-feminism, it doesn't make you a misogynist. Just because you aren't rabidly in favour of the EU, it doesn't make you a fascist. Just because you don't support black lives matter, it doesn't make you a white supremacist. Just because you don't support SSM, it doesn't make you a homophobe.

5. Stop pushing mass immigration for the purposes of creating a new electorate. They know what you're doing. Every minority group in the UK is opposed to mass immigration. Even Hispanics are opposed to mass immigration, and are more conservative - on a policy basis - and religious than white males.

6. Stop preaching cultural relativism; if you oppose something for one identity, oppose it for ALL identities. Murder doesn't suddenly become more acceptable because the perpetrator is Islamic; sexism doesn't become more acceptable because the perpetrator is female; racism doesn't become more acceptable because the hatred is being spewed at white men.

Get it? Until all of this STOPS, until we start to assign rights and responsibilities at the level of the individual and not the group, until all of the incessant shaming, self-loathing and guilt-tripping subsides, this will get infinitely worse."

 

[Stevencc]

Trump will lose.... obviously, I said that months ago, the only reason it got relatively close is because the opposition was almost as bad.

That's the last time we listen to you, it's time for the postmodernists, not modernist posts.

 

[Jockney]

We're to busy fighting amongst ourselves. From the comment section of the guardian.

"This is really so easy. This could have ALL been avoided. How to stop Trump:

1. STOP, for the LOVE of GOD, STOP peddling identity politics. Trump voters - working class people - despise it. They know what you're doing - it's obvious.

2. STOP treating ethnicity, gender, sexuality and religion as a proxy for class warfare; you are trying to displace them by creating a new under-class and stoking ethnocentrism, gynocentrism and tribalism for the purpose of manufacturing a new electorate and a globalised, supranational governance that NO-ONE wants.

3. STOP speaking about groups, start speaking about individuals (you know, actual liberalism).

4. Stop polarising ALL debate. Just because you aren't rabidly pro-feminism, it doesn't make you a misogynist. Just because you aren't rabidly in favour of the EU, it doesn't make you a fascist. Just because you don't support black lives matter, it doesn't make you a white supremacist. Just because you don't support SSM, it doesn't make you a homophobe.

5. Stop pushing mass immigration for the purposes of creating a new electorate. They know what you're doing. Every minority group in the UK is opposed to mass immigration. Even Hispanics are opposed to mass immigration, and are more conservative - on a policy basis - and religious than white males.

6. Stop preaching cultural relativism; if you oppose something for one identity, oppose it for ALL identities. Murder doesn't suddenly become more acceptable because the perpetrator is Islamic; sexism doesn't become more acceptable because the perpetrator is female; racism doesn't become more acceptable because the hatred is being spewed at white men.

Get it? Until all of this STOPS, until we start to assign rights and responsibilities at the level of the individual and not the group, until all of the incessant shaming, self-loathing and guilt-tripping subsides, this will get infinitely worse."

That comment is awful but is symptomatic of how radical movements have been co-opted by liberal capitalism. We need a genuinely intersectional radical left project that can stand against right wing authoritarianism. Corbyn ain't the answer but in this country it's a good start. It's an absolutely crucial start actually.

 

[Chris FGR]

America has definitely TRUMPED our Brexit. The British public can't be outdone like this in the stupidity stakes, we've got to top it.

Any suggestions?

 

[Aber gas]

Stop being hurt about "your" man not getting to be leader. Stop crying into your overpriced macchiato about Corbyn being unelectable. Stop attacking the one fucking hope for the Left in this country, there are enough people already doing that. Mobilise, organise and pull your fucking heads out of your well groomed, liberal arse holes.
Or keep tutting and rolling your eyes to defeat.
Like whatever.

 

[nousername]

11 European general elections in 2017 with many of those countries likely to elect far right candidates The tide is about to turn against us big time. It's going to be devastating unless we mobilise.

Spot on. Europe already has guys worse than Trump inside the EU. (Building walls [or fences...] and peddling far more divisive politics than Trump could get away with).

I don't worry about the US, it's got a strong economy and relatively high employment. Europe is stagnating, economies are going nowhere with high unemployment, particularly amongst the youth.

Before the US election Le Pen was at about 7/1, she's now at 3.5/1...

 

[epic73]

Wow. That happened.

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

Umm, can we just scrap 2016 and start again?

 

[G-Dragon]

Didn't expect this weeks ago but with all the recent "leaks" Clinton has only herself to blame. We have to realize Clinton is one of the most corrupt candidate to ever run for President.

Also, being on friendly terms with Russia isn't a bad thing. ISIS SHAKING!

 

[spireite]

 

[Stevencc]

Can we take this opportunity to spare a thought for poor Epic and G-Dragon? They don't deserve this. Unless G-Dragon actually voted for him.

You have my sympathy, lads.

Unless G-Dragon voted for him.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

 

[mnb089mnb]

He didn't even want to be president.

 

[Alty]

That comment is awful but is symptomatic of how radical movements have been co-opted by liberal capitalism. We need a genuinely intersectional radical left project that can stand against right wing authoritarianism. Corbyn ain't the answer but in this country it's a good start. It's an absolutely crucial start actually.

Happy to put myself out there and admit I'm having a political identity crisis at the moment (suspect this is standard for someone who's just turned 30), but I don't see that comment as awful at all. To me it seems we've gone so far down this identity politics rabbit hole that political and intellectual leaders are either bewildering or infuriating the majority of normal people. This idea that you're not allowed an opinion on certain topics unless you're gay, or a parent, or black, or whatever...it's weird. Surely anyone can make whatever point they like and if it's rational and has merit, they should be listened to?

I also find it troubling that people apply different standards to those from a particular background and claim this is somehow "progressive" (towards what are we progressing, I have to ask myself?).

What do you mean by radical, btw?

Will post something a bit better thought out when I'm not on a phone.

 

[blade1889]

Umm, can we just scrap 2016 and start again?

I'm still searching not for the switch to turn it off and on again

 

[Red]

I've still got space in the bunker mate. We'll watch Partridge and drink to the end times.

I'm definitely up for that mate

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

But at the same time, without doing any research into this, I would expect the stereotypical Republican voter to be like the stereotypical Conservative voter, e.g. middle class and better off, so I'm not entirely sure that graphic portrays the whole picture. How does this compare to previous elections?

 

[Stevencc]

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

Happy to put myself out there and admit I'm having a political identity crisis at the moment (suspect this is standard for someone who's just turned 30), but I don't see that comment as awful at all. To me it seems we've gone so far down this identity politics rabbit hole that political and intellectual leaders are either bewildering or infuriating the majority of normal people. This idea that you're not allowed an opinion on certain topics unless you're gay, or a parent, or black, or whatever...it's weird. Surely anyone can make whatever point they like and if it's rational and has merit, they should be listened to?

I also find it troubling that people apply different standards to those from a particular background and claim this is somehow "progressive" (towards what are we progressing, I have to ask myself?).

What do you mean by radical, btw?

Will post something a bit better thought out when I'm not on a phone.

How widespread is this "idea"? Coz I have to say I've very seldom encountered it and it hardly feels like The Greatest Threat To Western Civilisation. In fact, given some of the shit minorities have to put up with it seems like pretty small beer in the grand scheme of things.

I don't know. I don't think I understand anything anymore.

 

[G-Dragon]

Well if you are against refugees, you are called racist!

Glad over 100k refugees Clinton was planning to bring over won't be a success. Europe can have them.

 

[Stevencc]

Just because Liverpool aren't in Europe.

 

[Aber gas]

Imagine being against refugees?

 

[G-Dragon]

Should have worded better. Meant if you are against bringing refugees into the country without proper screening you are called racist.

Soz just woke up. Anyway excited for the new america

 

[Pagnell]

I have been up all night at the American Embassy in London witnessing the result of what looks like the most important election of my lifetime and maybe since the Second World War.

Because there is something profoundly shocking that the world's richest, most powerful nation - a proud old proselytizing democracy - is on the verge of choosing Donald Trump as its new president.

There are so many dimensions to this decision by American citizens that it is hard to know where to start.

But let's begin by noting that never in history have voters in the US or any developed western country chosen a candidate to the their leader who boasted on camera about violating women, was accused by ten women of abusing them, swaggered about minimising his tax payments and exploiting bankruptcy laws, threatened to put his opponent in jail, warned he might not respect the result of the election, and promised policies that to many look racist.

Millions and millions of Americans either didn't believe his character is as flawed as it seems, or didn't care. So if we needed evidence that vast numbers of them, especially white men, feel utterly alienated from the political establishment, well we have it now.

That palpable alienation of a country from its venerable and supposedly revered institutions - or at least the establishment representatives of those institutions - is quite simply momentous.

It shows, as that Brexit vote showed in this country, that there is a very angry mob who - rightly - believe the economic and political system serves only to enrich others.

So what kind of president will he be? Well during the campaign he flip-flopped on many of his pledges, so we can't be sure.

But he said he will put up barriers to free trade, especially exports from China and Mexico - which is why the Mexican Peso is collapsing as I write.

He has said he will be tougher on immigration, especially of Muslims, and has some unspecified secret plan to defeat so-called Islamic state.

He has expressed admiration for Putin, while implying that his foreign policy will be more isolationist than most of his predecessors. For what it's worth, Trump's admirer Nigel Farage tells me Trump hates the European Union even more than he does.

What does all this mean for us?

Well it's too early to say. But it won't be trivial.

One stress-inducing question is whether Putin will test Trump's apparently lukewarm commitment to deploying US troops by ordering his own armed forces into the Ukraine and nearer the Baltic states - to consolidate Russian regional power?

Another is whether China under President Xi be emboldened too to consolidate its military presence in east Asia, and increase already serious tensions with Japan.

Much more immediately, there'll be something of a global financial shock. Share prices are set to tumble today. The dollar will weaken.

Little wonder that the British ministers and officials I've been with at the embassy were dazed and confused.

The point is that it's almost impossible to find an MP from any party who wanted Trump to win.

So our prime minister and her advisers will today have to use all their creative skills to craft a statement that will highlight the importance of sustaining the so-called Special Relationship between Britain and America, while glossing over her government's conspicuous reservations about him.

In a nutshell, the world seems a lot scarier and less predictable this morning than it seemed last night.

And at the risk of infuriating passionate Brexiteers, I wonder whether the merits of integration with the rest of the European Union - as a bulwark against the uncertainties to our east and now possibly to our west - will feel quite as toxic to many Britons as was the case just a few weeks ago.

The arrival of the Donald is set to challenge quite a lot of what we think we know about ourselves.

- Robert Peston.

 

[SALTIRE]

Terrifying result, the idiots over there also have the Senate and house as well so will support his ludicrous ideas.

Dark times for the whole world.

 

[jacobncfc]

First brexit and now this, the liberals and elitists are losing and they only have themselves to blame for straying too far to the left and away from the middle and forgetting about the masses of ordinary people.

Hillary Clinton is nowhere near the left, let alone straying far that way.

 

[epic73]

Republicans now have the House, Senate, and presidency.

 

[markwwfc1992]

We have a right wing future.