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President Trump

Entry 1820, on 2016-11-09 at 22:38:35 (Rating 3, News)

OK, so Donald Trump's victory is the big news of the moment, so I guess I should be commenting on it in my blog. You might wonder why I would bother considering how much has already been said, but I want to filter out the unsubstantiated drivel from the avalanche of opinion and leave the more perspicacious commentary behind. So here are my comments...

First of all, I want to say that I am not a Donald Trump or a Republican supporter, and in general I would be more likely to support the Democrats. But this is different. Not only is Trump not a typical Republican, but Clinton is also a very unlikeable Democrat. If I was an American and was eligible to vote there, I think I would probably just have stayed at home.

Second, I think the shock loss by Clinton has lead to a lot of hyperbolic rhetoric from her supporters, and I think most of it can be safely ignored. I would especially be inclined to ignore anything which concludes that racism or misogyny is the reason for Clinton's loss. As I suggested in my previous blog post, it's just too easy to blame any failure by a woman on sexism.

Third, there are a lot of highly exaggerated claims and assumptions of the worst possible outcomes as a result of Trump winning. Surely people don't really think he is literally going to carry out all the things he talked about during his campaign. It should be obvious that those are ideas which, even if he really wanted to execute them, would likely be blocked by other parts of the US government. Even though it looks like the House, Senate, and Supreme Court will all be under Republican control, they will all moderate Trump's more extreme ideas.

Fourth, so why did Trump win? I think people are just sick of the staus quo, of the political elite ignoring the majority, and of the establishment which continues to get more out of touch with reality. There is a worldwide trend towards this, and I think a similar attitude was responsible for Brexit. Clinton represented the establishment and Trump is something new. Unfortunately, new is not always better.

Finally, OK so Trump is going to be president. Let's give the guy a chance. Who knows, maybe it might turn out a lot better than many people think. Once he gets into that position of power maybe he'll behave himself a bit better and get a bit more realistic about what is and isn't practical.

So there's a few quick thoughts on the subject. Once the dust settles and we see what sort of leader Trump is really going to be I can comment further. That's assuming the internet isn't destroyed in the inevitable apocalypse, of course!

Comment 1 (4607) by Richard on 2016-11-10 at 21:37:17:

Well written Owen, I completely agree with your analysis. Like Trump or not, and of course there are numerous things not to like, the American people have made their democratic choice, (of two awful choices) and all these post election protests by Clinton supporters are ridiculous. So democracy is important, unless my candidate doesn't win? Trumps acceptance speech was actually not bad, and suggests as you say, a more moderate approach could be possible. We can only wait and see, but all this fear and hype about worst case scenarios just doesn't help anyone. Cheers.

Comment 2 (4608) by OJB on 2016-11-10 at 21:46:03:

Yes, I thought his victory speech was almost, well... presidential. Maybe when he actually starts doing the job he might settle down a bit and be a half decent leader!

Comment 3 (4609) by rescatooor on 2016-11-10 at 21:49:54:

My thoughts exactly. Trump isn’t exactly ideal but he was democratically elected. All the crying on Twitter won’t magically change that.

Comment 4 (4610) by Derek Ramsey on 2016-11-10 at 21:50:29:

And Facebook. It’s like I went to bed in a world full of adults and woke up to a bunch of children everywhere. I’m no fan of Trump but he was elected, so like all presidents before him, he deserves a chance to mess it up and earn the criticism. Or maybe he’ll do a good job. Who knows.

If the apocalypse destroys the internet, I’ll miss these discussions from 14,000 km away.

Comment 5 (4611) by OJB on 2016-11-10 at 21:50:56:

Yes, I can hardly believe how the Clinton supporters have reacted to this. If things had been around the other way (Trump supporters rioting in the streets if he lost) there would be widespread condemnation in the media. Instead they are treated more like heroes, and not the petulant children they seem to be. As I said, I didn’t want Trump to win either, but that’s what happened and it needs to be accepted, or should we just throw out the democratic process?

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