Surely the defining element of the 2016 POTUS election was the way the mainstream media lost the plot. Even previously highly respected newspapers and TV programs resorted to a continuous litany of anti Trump lies. About sex, probity, racism, business acumen, temperament, everything. In fact any made up dirt that they could throw they did throw. They became parodies. In doing so they have completely and utterly lost the trust of the American people. And their stupidity was that the more they lied the more they helped Trump. He just sat there smiling and basking in the free exposure.
So how and why did Trump win the election? The psephologists will tell you it was because former Democratic voters failed to cast their ballots. But that doesn’t tell you why. The real social force is that people globally are fed up with socialism. The progressives, liberals, social justice warriors, lefties. Every time these people get power they make people worse off, especially the working man. Their political ideas fail every single time they have ever been tried. And their authoritarianism as they force everybody into their dogma goes against the human spirit.
Which brings us to the reaction to the result. The Democratic Party, ironically, certainly don’t like democracy. They are bad losers (and emotionally immature cry babies) with utter contempt for the electorate. They don’t seem to realise that their actions strengthen Trump and weaken the position of socialism. To further damage themselves the Democratic leaders have failed to denounce the rioting properly. It is almost as if they approve of it.
So where do we go from here? It is very early days. Before the election nearly all the press told us that a Trump victory would be the biggest possible disaster and possibly the end of the world. Instead everyone that matters loves the result, from global financial markets to world leaders. They are all heartily glad to be seeing the back of Obama, who has been a complete disaster of a POTUS. The Republican have majorities in both houses, so Trump is free to act. He has refused to draw his President’s salary of $300K pa, $2.4 million for a two term president. Not something you would expect Hillary to have done.
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I’m confused, as this post seems to completely contradict what you said a few months ago, when endorsing Gary Johnson:
Trump is an immense egotist who opens his mouth before engaging his brain. Him being president would be like giving a monkey a hand grenade to play with. He knows absolutely nothing about government and most of his “policies†(often made up on the spur of the moment) would cause real harm. There is no knowing the scale of the disasters he would lead America into.
What led you to apparently change your mind so much?
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Oliver,
Johnson was the best candidate, by far, but with no big party machine behind him.
Trump was the best candidate, by far, of those with a big party machine.
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Trump is the result of decades of neoliberal and neoconservative technocratic governance. He is the result of a media that won’t accurately report reality. While they might be factually correct, they cherry-pick facts and heavily spin it to fit their narrative. Facts and figures don’t always represent reality; GDP is increasing, but most wages are stagnant. And they wonder why most Americans don’t trust them. He is the result of decades of publicly shaming people who point out unpleasant facts that don’t fit the elite’s narrative. He is the result of a system allowing for the undercutting of American workers by foreigners; cheap illegal immigrant labor paid off the books and the widely abused H1-B visa program (which is meant to meet critical skilled worker gaps). Even Sen. Durban, Democrat from Illinois, has submitted legislation multiple times to stop H1-B visa abuse. It’s hard to prusade people it’s fine when IT workers are having to train their imported replacements. Trump is a result of the hollowing-out of the middle class. He is the result of prolonged wars that have no denfinable descrete objective. He is the result of a diseased corrupt temple of governance that’s created a de facto two-tiered legal system that doesn’t hold the powerful and government accountable for the same things average citizens would be jailed over. Clinton’s email server anyone? Trump is the result of a non-representing representative government that refuses to do what they promised to do. He is the result of the elite glitterati who serve special interests and not those of the people. Above all, Trump is our middle finger, our Molotov cocktail to a system that’s broken and refuses to abide by the will of the people.