The Next President of the United States

[Low-ish D]

I whole heartedly agree with the VP issue. Warren or Sanders woulda made the Clinton pill a while lot easier to swallow.

I remember confidently saying that Trump would lose because rather than work on broadening his base of support , he decided to just focus on pandering to his base, whipping them up into a frenzy. Turns out I was only half right. That frenzied base voted, every one of them. Those who found the Hillary pill too bitter to swallow stayed home - apparently about 12 million less viruses turnout out this time.

I think Sanders elicited some fervor of his own, and his voters might have turned out in larger numbers.

Would be interesting to see if America reacted better or worse to the perceived threat of a socialist than to a woman.

[Mike from Boston]

I just don't get this whole "if you vote against Hillary it is because of sexism"? I won't go over her negatives, but I think it is fair to assume that you don't think Bernie Sanders voters are sexist-but they voted against her. I know the process is different in the UK, but would it be sexist to not have wanted Thatcher as the first female PM?

With regard to Warren-how could she possibly align herself with Hillary (who is owned by Wall Street) and not be a total hypocrite? She is the champion of fighting the Big Banks and Goldman Sachs of the world.

I know my wife and niece (18 and 1st time voting) both voted for HRC and wanted to see a female President. I hope to see one in my lifetime too, just not one as bad as her.

[DzM]

I just don't get this whole "if you vote against Hillary it is because of sexism"? I won't go over her negatives, but I think it is fair to assume that you don't think Bernie Sanders voters are sexist-but they voted against her. I know the process is different in the UK, but would it be sexist to not have wanted Thatcher as the first female PM?

With regard to Warren-how could she possibly align herself with Hillary (who is owned by Wall Street) and not be a total hypocrite? She is the champion of fighting the Big Banks and Goldman Sachs of the world.

I know my wife and niece (18 and 1st time voting) both voted for HRC and wanted to see a female President. I hope to see one in my lifetime too, just not one as bad as her.

I don't think any rational observer can say that there wasn't some level of sexism involved in some people who refused to vote for Clinton. If nothing else you just have to look at the popularity of the "Trump That Bitch" shirts at the rallies. I don't think that sexism was the primary driver though. I go back to the personal animus that a huge number of voters have for the Clinton name. Hell - in the List Of Terrible Things you provided nearly half of them are "but her husband is/was an asshole" and "the Clintons are not trustworthy" and "remember that time that Bill was accused of being a philanderer and lied about it?" etc.

But yeah. The "Trump That Bitch" and the constant din of "She has to make sure she presents herself as likable and not shrill." Sexism.

[Mike from Boston]

Okay, I have been schooled..

[Sportin' Life]

I really honestly believe that if you simply think that the top marginal tax rate should be lower that doesn't make you sexist. But if you are willing to vote for someone who has serially assaulted women in order to get the policy you want, then you are at least sympathetic to sexism.

Look Trump is a blatant misogynist. 12 women have accused him of groping them. He has constantly belittled women, rated them, and objectified them. At some point, even if you agree with some of his policies, a person should stand up and tell him that his behavior is absolutely unacceptable. Especially if that person wants to be taken seriously as a 'values' voter or thought of as some sort of pious Christian.

And before you tell me that these accusations are only accusations without proof then I would point out to you that if you believe that the word of 12 women means less than the word of 1 man, then yes; that is sexism in action. Moreover even if you believe that women are generally mendacious and lie 80% of the time about these things (which is not true) then there is a less than 7% chance that Trump is innocent of this felony. But we know that isn't true, because he has said himself that he does those things.

[Low D]

Yes, the fact that Trump's blatant, public mysogony did not stop people voting for him is a bad, bad sign, irregardless of how voters felt about Clinton.

"We've come a long way, baby", but we've got a looong way to go.

[DzM]

John Scalzi, well known SciFi writer, liberal(ish) voter, and agitator of Twitter Trolls, wrote about the implicit racism-aspect of this election. In it he nicely describes the implicit sexism built into voting for a blatantly sexist candidate. It's an interesting read:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/11/10/t ... of-racism/

The basic gist is that if you go to buy HJBO but your cable company will only sell it to you bundled with Cinemax then you are, in fact, ALSO a Cinemax subscriber even if it's not what you want. To apply it to my own life - I'm forced to have ESPN as part of my channel lineup. I don't want ESPN, but I chose to accept it because I want to the other channels I get. But whether I like it or not, and whether I approve of it or not, I am implicitly an ESPN subscriber. No amount of "but I don't actually watch ESPN, I just pay for it and accept it as part of my channel line up" changes the fact that ... you know ... I pay for it and it's part of my channel line up.

I suspect there will be many aspects of the Trump Presidency where many people, including those that voted for him, have to say "Well, yeah, but THAT'S not why I voted for him. I just accepted that that was part of the package, but not the part I endorsed."

[kmurray105]

Just so everyone is aware, Shane advised everyone to vote for Hillary: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10155629328892619

[Low D]

Apparently about 42 % of women who did vote (and 53% of white women) , voted Trump

http://www.popsugar.com/news/What-Percentage-White-Women-Voted-Trump-42690419

[DzM]

Yup. The voting patterns are very interesting indeed.

[soulfinger]

I was wondering about this massive wall Trump reckons he's having built..how exactly does he plan to make Mexico pay for it?

I think he has positive prospects of success if he tells them he plans to go and live there. They'll build that thing pronto.

[firehazard]

I was wondering about this massive wall Trump reckons he's having built..how exactly does he plan to make Mexico pay for it?

I think he has positive prospects of success if he tells them he plans to go and live there. They'll build that thing pronto.

I remember singing along with Tom Russell's "Who's Gonna Build Your Wall?" at the Cambridge Folk Festival before the 2008 US election. Thinking how stupid (and obviously racist) the whole idea was back then, and then after the 2008 election that at least that was one thing that would never happen. Ah well. Dark times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZkAoosVLkA

Anyway, as Trump was so sure the election was rigged, I assume that when he takes power he'll be arranging a rerun.

[DzM]

Mike From Boston, I'm having trouble seeing any silver linings here. Or even pewter linings. Trump seems singularly unequipped for the job. Washington (née "The Swamp") is already eating him up. And if he declares "man, I'm really unprepared for this; I resign! Let the pros do what they're good at!" then we're stuck with Pence, a hateful homophobic ideologue.

So help me out here. Give me some hope. Give me a straw that I can cling to. What awesome thing is going to be done by this administration that will make up for all of the bad I anticipate?

[Low D]

So help me out here. Give me some hope. Give me a straw that I can cling to. What awesome thing is going to be done by this administration that will make up for all of the bad I anticipate?

Ummm..... when you've hit bottom*, you can only go up?

* (Look up, waaaaaaaay up, through your blury tear-stained eyes. That thing you see way up there? That's bottom.)

[DzM]

So help me out here. Give me some hope. Give me a straw that I can cling to. What awesome thing is going to be done by this administration that will make up for all of the bad I anticipate?

Ummm..... when you've hit bottom*, you can only go up?

* (Look up, waaaaaaaay up, through your blury tear-stained eyes. That thing you see way up there? That's bottom.)

Thanks buddy. You're totally helping.

I feel I should point our that our maple-syrup stained neighbors to the north aren't above reproach here. Mr. Trump is all about "And I'LL greenlight the Keystone XL pipeline." The company that can't WAIT to offer him blumpy in return? TransCanada based out of Alberta.