Very good and informative comment. Thanks for taking the time to contribute.
A superb, thorough, and well-informed post. If there was one summary of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election I could give to someone just back from a year in the wilderness or on a desert island, it would be this. Disillusionment was the deciding emotion, and even though Trump got in I'm unsure the elites will realise it's past time to throw the rest of humanity far more than an occasional bone.
Donald Trump's victory is a much-needed wake up call to the elites of the USA and the wider world. Hillary Clinton remembered the affluent east and west coasts and forgot those in-between. Trump did not persuade voters; voters persuaded Trump to represent them. The orchestrated anti-Trump narrative in the media did not achieve the desired effect of promoting Clinton, who is popularly viewed as untrustworthy and corrupt.
The 'status quo' candidate representing the interests of high finance and corporations lost and the change candidate emerged victorious. The House, Senate and Presidency are all in Republican hands, thanks to the votes of people inhabiting cities and towns of the USA which have been in decline for decades due to a lethal combination of unhindered free trade, advancing technology, and outsourcing of labour. Millions of desperate people were left to drown by a disdainful elite, and would grasp any life raft offered; it was Trump who made that offer. Whether he'll follow through and actually help those left behind, only time will tell.
The U.S. election result is further evidence that the majority of the mass media lives in a self-perpetuated bubble, insulated from the harsh and grim realities ordinary people face every day. Huge frustration and discontentment in modern politics manifested in the UK with the Brexit vote to leave the European Union, and it is manifest in the U.S. Presidential election. In Bernie Sanders the Democratic Party had a more palatable populist, but preferred to nominate their Establishment candidate instead.
So they did...and so she lost.
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