Where were you when you heard about Trump?

CwzJXxqVEAE3y8WWhere were you when you heard about Trumps success, and how do you feel about it? An audit. Please feel free to add yours in the comments below.

Matthieu Lopez (35). Internet expert from Strasbourg

When I woke and saw the news on my phone I thought it was some kind of a bad joke from the gorafi website and then I read the web site name, The Figaro and I don’t believe it. For half of the day I dont believe it , my main concern is that it gives credit to the extremists and the National Front, I think this might have a bad influence on the election in May, which is only six months away. I am genuinely very worried about the future.

Dr Susan Ramsay, an academic researcher working in Washington D.C.

It’s amazing how much can happen in 48 hours. I went into election day as I go through most days, trying to fit everything in, stay focused, and remember to take time to walk at least once around the parking lot at work. But on election day I also felt excitement. I had waited to vote. I enjoy it. I could have gone and done early voting, but I wanted the energy of voting on election day – election day at my voting spot for the last 4 Presidential elections. I didn’t get there though until about 7 pm – later than I expected, but yet not unexpected given all the things I was trying to get done at work. The parking lot was pretty empty. I was startled by a women approaching me out of the dark offering to give me a listing of Democrat slots; I said no thanks more brusquely and quickly than I would have if I hadn’t been startled. Right afterwards, I wished I had been kinder to her, thinking about how dark it was and how it was getting cold. I voted, not feeling the excitement of the past as I had some reservations about Clinton. I was quickly done as the voting place was pretty empty at that point in the evening. I headed back out to the dark, hungry, ready to get home and get some food. As I hustled toward my car I saw the woman talking with another woman. I said as I hurried by “Thank you for being out here tonight!

Her companion looked at me and said, “You are welcome. Oh I missed talking to you!” I glanced over at the Clinton supporter’s companion and realized she was wearing a TRUMP shirt. I was startled again, but this time it was more like an inadvertent stomach elbowing. Not wanting to be rude twice in one 10 minute period, I just smiled weakly and went to my car thinking both of them must think I am a Trump supporter.

I went home and purposely went to bed early and without listening to any news. I wanted the whole toxic, disgusting, pre-election campaign full of Trump’s blatant lies, arrogance, and manipulative appeals to people’s base side to be over. I didn’t want to have to hear his voice ever again. I had become so accustomed to reflexively turning off the car radio whenever his voice came on or – toward the end – whenever he was mentioned- that I could hit the off button in a fraction of a second without even looking at it. I had told all my friends I wouldn’t attend an all night watch party and wouldn’t be calling to touch base during the night.

I went to bed and fell asleep as my head hit the pillow. I slept soundly and since I actually did go to bed early woke up feeling rested.

I went downstairs briskly, but refusing to rush. I turned on my laptop while turning on a news program. Nothing at first about the election. I noticed lots of messages on my cell phone. Then suddenly the announcer seemed to say something about President elect Trump. I felt as though I couldn’t breathe. It really seemed as though time had stopped as I tried to process the words that kept coming.

Richard Cannaday was brought up the son of traveling Jehovas witnesses and has spent much of his life on the road. He is currently sleeping rough by a river in Texas and presents himself each day at a casual labour market where he is given a number and if chosen stands to make $70 a day.

Well, I was assuming Hillary would happily win, and when I saw in the morning paper that Trump had won I could hardly believe it! Boom. Criminal politics, politics for criminals. Who I am and my surroundings! Jeeezzzus! It’s been, thank God, sunny yesterday and today, so I’m drying out all my soaking books and things, even a sodden passport, wash in the stream that never stops flowing by, guess it could be compared to camping out beside the river Almond. The distances in the US are so vast, nobody walks, I’m on of the very few found walking in fact. Have to go buy enough rice to sink my laptop in it for 24 hrs to remove the moisture in it… They gave me a Food Stamp card, which = $174 a month of food, so I have food even if I’m not working… Finally superglued my work boots so I can work tomorrow, praise the Lord…

Agititus: Alastair McIntosh, author of Soil & Soul and Poacher’s Pilgrimage

I turned in not much later than normal, but it was to the spare bed in the office from which I work at home. Well before midnight, I’d been turfed out from the matrimonial boudoir . Vérène knew that, on a night like this, I’d be most jerkily afflicted. We’ve come to call it Agititus. An activist’s affliction. Inflammation of the agités.

I woke up around 3.30 in the morning as our once-stray cat fumped onto the duvet. She’d just got back, cold and damp, from mousing in the neighbourhood. I fired up the phone. What had been 78% odds for Clinton had flipped to 90% on Trump.

In a vain bid to settle, I blasted out exactly 140 characters. “Trump is idolatry. An inner emptiness. Be with the vulnerable. Be still in conscious love. Call back what gives life from such loss of soul.”

There was but one remedy for my medical condition. I lifted up the covers, let the feline refugee crawl in, and fell back to sleep with purring in my arms.

She was gone when I woke up again, some two hours later. I don’t blame her. But I was not the only one. By this time, half the human world was down with Agititus.

V.J. Robertson

4.30am, in bed, and the news comes through the radio that Trump is likely to win. I’m not at all surprised but ponder briefly on why very often people with slightly comical names and bad hair hit the headlines. I also secretly hope that Baron turns out to be gay or marries a Mexican or a Muslim, or possibly all three simultaneously. This is the only thing I find funny about this turn of events…

In the cold light of day it seems Britain sneezed and the USA caught the cold this time: their citizens rather more demonstrative rebellion against the old order parallels our polite civil unrest leading to Brexit. And for the same queasy mix: fear of foreigners, loss of faith in politicians and bankers, corporate greed, poor economic prospects, uncertain future for healthcare, poverty, declining educational standards, terrorism and everything else that is the Western malaise.

The Brexiteers and Trump supporters have some point though: the old order just isn’t working and we all need to sit up and pay attention to this, address our fears and prejudices, take that leap of faith to get the people worthy to be our elected representatives for the fair society we want. Or else we will continue to be angry, make bad decisions and have an old, out of touch order taking control – with or without bad hair and comical names.

Maxwell Macleod. Tourist flat manager and writer.

Having met Mr Trump, all be it for only a few seconds at a time and to little consequence, several times over the years I have long been warey of him and watching his rise to power with considerable nervousness. Like so many others I sat up late watching the news and was able to fall asleep at around two confident that Secretary Clinton had it in the bag . The extent of my horror at finding Donald Trump had won can hardly be overstated. My brief encounters of him have left me convinced that here is a man of limited intelligence with scant ability to concentrate on any subject for more than a few minutes.

Last year I spent two days on The Hill and found myself alarmed at the sense of it being so hermetically sealed and distanced from the rest of a world that it so intensely influenced. The one hope is that the Republican party that he has split will have the good sense to control him. If not the dangers are huge.

Comments (32)

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  1. David Stewart says:

    More than most, we Scots know what he means (even if he doesn’t) when he says he’ll “mak’ America greet again….”

    1. Maxwell says:

      Thanks David,
      I hate to be negative or dismissive about what was an interesting comment, but what we are trying to generate here is an audit from many folk from all around the world as to where they were when they heard the news, and how they felt about it. Ideally we are looking for twenty words from people saying who they are and then no more than two hundred saying where how they feel.
      Just to follow these rules I was in Edinburgh at the Royal Mile.
      I hope people will have the courage to nail their colours to the mast and give their real names. I also hope we will hear from some Trump supporters

      1. David Stewart says:

        I’m in the south of England, and had the same sickening feeling of disbelief as others are reporting here.

        Unfortunately, it’s become an increasingly familiar feeling in recent years, and makes one even more apprehensive that France might go the same way.

      2. Alberajudge says:

        I woke up hungover in typical Glaswegian start of the day…flicked on the right wing 501 news channel and before I could retch into the basin the elation took over me that the neo liberal rapist war criminal establishment clintons had been put in their place…I had no need to gag…democracy had sung Beethoven into my ears ..it was a poignant moment…yes we were left with trump…a mere blip…a short term fad…that and the fact I won a few quid..betting on him and brexit at very generous but blindingly obvious odds…now youse Scottish scheme burds msps..,you’ve blown the 10 billion china deal…how are you going to deal with the straight talking bigot you profess to despise???i bet you deal with him no probs…the people have spoken recently please listen…

        1. “now youse Scottish scheme burds msps”
          – lovely

      3. Alberajudge says:

        Your not only being negative your comment is exceptionally bland…tedious…blah blah…I’ve got twenty words for you …repeat democracy 20 times.,,and get the picture..you can’t always get what you want…sure it’s corrupt and poisonous at times…I’d rather let the people choose than a totalitarian system…that said as long as we’ve got religion that will exist…

        1. Max well says:

          Indeed well your own comments certainly aren’t Bland but one of the problems with wild creativity is that people usually don’t have a clue what you’re talking about I would hope that you would tell us who you are where you were and what you think about it many thanks for your contribution though

  2. Richard MacKinnon says:

    Its hard for me to follow what Dr Susan Ramsay, is talking about but I noticed that the state of Washington voted 94% in favour of Clinton. May I suggest that she reflects on just how out of touch the USA state of government was (note the tense). As someone once said ‘you are’nt laughing any more’.

  3. Yan says:

    Usually devour election nights but went to bed for this one knowing (from way back) that Trump would win as the only obstacle to the American presidency would be and had been the GOP and the msm.

    That morning in Scotland I got out of bed the same side as usual to the news that Trump had won and wondering where politically were fellow Scots on the news that Trump had won.

    Predictable they were still supporting and investing in an immoral politics that they had known to be corrupt to the core, that says more about their corrupt politics and immoral political agendas than any hostility they may have towards President Trump.

  4. Max well says:

    Thank Yan, here in $cotland and what do you do?

  5. Minty MacKay says:

    Minty MacKay
    Crofter in a remote part of Mull, been here 20+ years.
    I was in the croft kitchen watching the yeows quietly grazing when I turned the radio on and heard the news – my mind a maelstrom of 9/11 – 11/9, of Wendell Berry’s essay ‘Thoughts in the Presence of Fear’ mixed in with his poem ‘The Mad Farmer Revolution’ – of Ragnarok when the stars fell from the sky and the dwarfs who sighed deeply in their caves died from fear … Then I heard the piper play ‘The Flowers of the Forest” in Remembrance: music that touches and inspires deep into your heart – Lest We Forget .. and uncertainty … there is always change, and it is up to us to become that Change that then impacts on and influences our physical surroundings – we ourselves are an expression of the ongoing evolutionary drama unfolding on countless planes, we are a Family all potentially entwined – we must bring forth and nurture our human energies in Unity; dominance and rivalry will not exist in the future – the future is a world for all of us .. “It’s coming yet for a’ that” – you’d better believe it, Mr. Trump

  6. Maxwell says:

    Wonderful , thanks Minty. Minty was the driving force behind the astonishing Ardalanish self sustaining eco-village that established several houses, a weaving mill and an organic farm on Mull . Her words should encourage us all

  7. Minty MacKay says:

    Minty MacKay
    Crofter in a remote part of Mull – been here for 20+ years
    I was in the croft kitchen watching the yeows quietly grazing when I turned the radio on and heard the news – my mind a maelstrom of 9/11 – 11/9, of Wendell Berry’s essay ‘Thoughts in the Presence of Fear’ mixed in with his poem ‘The Mad Farmer Revolution’ – of Ragnarok when the stars fell from the sky and the dwarfs who sighed deeply in their caves died from fear … Then I heard the piper play ‘The Flowers of the Forest” in Remembrance: music that touches and inspires deep into your heart – Lest We Forget .. and uncertainty … there is always change, and it is up to us to become that Change that then impacts on and influences our physical surroundings – we ourselves are an expression of the ongoing evolutionary drama unfolding on countless planes, we are a Family all potentially entwined – we must bring forth and nurture our human energies in Unity; dominance and rivalry will not exist in the future – the future is a world for all of us .. “It’s coming yet for a’ that” – you’d better believe it, Mr. Trump

  8. Isla Browning says:

    I woke up, went downstairs, switched on the radio, immediately heard the news and switched off. I didn’t want to hear any more!

  9. Maxwell says:

    Thanks Isla , from Edinburgh, a leading academic on potatoes!

  10. w.b.robertson says:

    woke up, switched on telly, saw that Trump had won — and started calculating the amounts of cash that I was due from my bets with the bookies. it is an ill wind etc…

  11. Maxwell says:

    Five questions if I might be so inquisitive Mr Robertson. where were you, what do you do, what odds did you get and what were the clues that fed your wisdom?

    1. w.b.robertson says:

      bill101eag@btinternet. answers: at home, long retired national newspaper journalist, 3s and latterly a “too good to miss” 6-1, my experience and the knowledge that the modern metro media don`t get out much…I should add that I am a life long Socialist and the son of a family of miners, and in recent years I have refused to vote for the Labour Party (better known, during the Blair/Brown era, as the best Tory government we ever had)…regards bill Robertson.

  12. Debi Gliori says:

    I’m a writer and illustrator and I was away from home on tour with a new book, bedded down in a hotel on the Welsh border. Deep in the insulation of my own little liberal, left-wing confirmation bubble, I was so sure Hillary would be the next President, warts and all. Although somewhere, deep inside me a little voice kept saying – but you were also sure about the Indyref and sure about remaining in Europe. And I woke up at 4 am and checked Twitter and saw the redness spreading across the US map but clung onto hope that there was still a possibility that the Democrats would squeak into power. By 5am, I was wide awake and in shock. I feel as if we have collectively taken a lurch into darkness. How will we ever keep our planetary emissions below the safe thresholds now? How will we keep our daughters safe? How can we hope for peace in our time when such rage and hatred has been stirred up? We appear to be doomed to repeat the same lessons from history that we are, for one reason or another, unable or unwilling to comprehend.

  13. GreatClunkingFist says:

    I was at Glasgow airport for an early flight and saw the news on the screens. First reaction was, sadly, not to be surprised. I was cynical enough to predict Brexit after the Tory victory last year, so Trump is not the eye-opener it is for some.

    He actually worries me less than Bush Junior, but that isn’t saying much. Clinton was not a good candidate and it’s a crying shame Sanders could not run.

    I believe there has to be a very painful, protracted and probably bloody crisis before the tide turns away from Trump and his international equivalents.

  14. David Wilson says:

    I watched the horror unfold live on CNN. It was far from being a surprise having followed closely from the perspective of US TV. The US media provided a free platform for Trump, carrying live feeds from his many rallies throughout the primaries and general election campaigns. Hardly any TV “journalists” challenged him on the many outrageous statements and lies he spouted they became an echo chamber for Trump and his gang of surrogates and supporters like Jeffrey Lord. Twitter and reality TV created a monster, the ultimate Troll, Donald J Trump the 45th and final president of the United State of America.

  15. Agatha Cat says:

    In Ireland, I went to bed around 1.30am before the result was announced, feeling a bit depressed and fairly sure Trump would win. Some of the results were taking too long come in, suggesting that some states were much closer than previously predicted. About 7am I switched on the radio and heard the news, and felt even more depressed to have my doubts confirmed. Given the 2014 No vote, the Tory UK 2015 win then the Leave success in 2016, the Trump victory seemed just one more step towards a nastier world. Hungary and Poland already have fairly unsavoury governments and I’m not looking forward to the elections in France, the Netherlands and Germany in the near future. It’s not enough to laugh at likes of Trump and Farage, or even the hapless Theresa May: it’s just depressing that nastiness is seen as making “tough decisions” and that equality and decency are perceived as weakness.

  16. Max well says:

    I am delighted and grateful at these responses but still think they would be more valid if people said who they were and what they do and try to keep it under 200 words however diversity is the spice of Life

  17. Elaine Fraser says:

    Homemaker , didnt stay up , had followed for months and felt pundits had got it wrong and he would win, have never placed a bet in my life but insisted my husband , youngest son and I , all put money on him to win with the intention to donate any winnings to refugees. Seemed a cynical thing to do , gambling with people lives, but also somehow appropriate as it all felt like a game /circus. Woke up as usual saw the news , felt mixture of having been proved right and horror/disbelief that so many had made this choice but I also feel desperate people do desperate things.

  18. tartanfever says:

    John Wilson, full time carer, Scotland.

    I’d spent election day longing for it all to be over. I can only imagine how Americans felt. Policy had long since given way to verbal abuse and playground name-calling. Of course, the news here in the UK had been relentless over the past weeks with US election news, I don’t know if Americans really grasp how influential their politics are to the rest of the world.

    I went to bed at 11pm, having had a deliberately busy day avoiding the media. I spent the day getting the garden cleared of the leaves and clearing the borders and planting some tulips for next spring. The fresh air of the day certainly got me off to sleep as I’m usually a bit of a night owl.

    I awoke at 3.30am (so 10.30 or so EST) and fired up my laptop out of curiosity. Things were going as expected then, and only the odd murmur of something possibly happening that was off script. A quick peruse of some twitter feeds and that was me hooked. I spent the next few hours switching between TV news and twitter as the unlikely became a possibility and then a certainty.

    It was utterly riveting watching TV pundits looking totally lost at what was unfolding before them.

  19. Alberta Romafloris says:

    Awoke. Oh, what HAVE the vulgar Americans done now?
    Can the creature be contained?
    How quickly do ignorant volatile populist Fascists betray their supporters?  Rabbles, once roused, tend to get crosser when let down.  Will inward-looking isolationism, fear of anything different, and of what they do not understand hasten deterioration of their country?  Will their lack of knowledge tend to engender impractical economic policies that can precipitate local collapses even national plummeting?  Intolerance inclines toward curtailing independent and academic thought, thus will the educated emigrate?
    Might fear, wilful blindness, and blank-sheet ignorance beget aggressive foreign policy and Hot War? Could the consequences even be a fundamental alteration of the map of the USA?  Why should America’s enemies hesitate to retaliate, if they are credibly threatened, or humiliated?  Might they attack both coasts? 
    Could the American education system be altered to include critical-thinking or even simple global geography, instead of first bombing then informing the adult populace the whereabouts of a country?
    Could the new First Lady – a former naked “model” – be more of a contrast to the dignified Michelle?
    Will T’s “university” fraud trial provoke a custodial sentence before inauguration?
    How soon till impeachment?”

  20. Maxwell says:

    Thanks Alberta, where are you from and what do you do?

  21. joe Gibbs says:

    Joe Gibbs is the man behind the Belladrum Festival, which takes place every year near Inverness.

    Is there any place better than the rest to receive notice of Armageddon? Perhaps in a bar commiserating with like-minded company or in the safety of the marital bed when you can cling together under the duvet. During both of this years geo-political earthquakes my wife and I were recklessly absent from the security of our hearth.
    As Brexit dawned we were hold up at Glastonbury Festival in a V.W Campervan built in 1972-the year of the European Community Act. Fumbling fingers turned in wirelesses and across the campsite a chorus of groans filled the air. Unpardonably the citidal of hedonism had been breachged by grim reality. Other than nearbye burgerholic party of grim northern businessmen no one was celebrating. On Trumpin day we were in a London B and B and woke with a mild hangover to the now familiar sound of worlds colliding. News of Donald’s triumph was hard on a sore head. Among the thoughts crowding in I wondered whether the Mexicans knew about the berm he had thrown up around his recalcitrant Menie golf club neighbours and how the 2012 top Scot Michael Forbes was feeling. We upped and scuttled back to Scotland in case border walls were becoming the rage again. At the airport I hummed the tune to Nellie the Elephant packed his trunk and said good bye to the circus, off she went with a trumpety trump, trump trump trump.

  22. John O'Dowd says:

    Retired academic biochemist and university senior manager. I was at home in Lanarkshire. Watched until 1:00 am – l retired reasonably sure Trump would be beaten – but with no great enthusiasm for Clinton.

    Restless sleep – got up at 6:30 to see disaster unfolding. Surprised by my lack of surprise. The inchoate and undirected revulsion at neoliberalism bringing another ‘surprise’- the organised left failing to explain why people have perfectly reasonable grievances, and direct these towards political action – a rightwing populist steps in.

    Part of reason is the capture of the Democratic Party by the Wall St Clinton neoliberal/neocons – just as the Blairites captured the Labour Party in the UK. Indeed Blair consciously copied the Clinton playbook – including hugely enriching himself after an office of relentless triangulation and warmongering on behalf of his masters.

    The alternative result would also have been to watch a disaster unfolding. Heads I win – tails you lose -for the permanent Deep State Government of Wall Street-military-industrial complex- Security State. At least with Clinton gone WWIII was on the back burner – for now.

    The Neocons would have be slightly happier with Clinton – but will manage just fine by co-opting Trump – a man with no fixed ideology – other than Trumpism – which is a bizarre melange of rentier neoliberalism and his undoubted narcissistic personality disorder – along with a good helping of racism, xenophobia and mysogeny. And if Trump upsets the Deep State – as he might Wall Street – they’ll have have him assassinated as they’ve done before. President Pence will do as he’s told.

    Neoliberalism was going to win either way. Clinton had seen off Sanders – the only likely (and not very serious) threat to the Neoliberals -The Neocons New American Century-ists would have been slightly happier with Clinton – but will manage just fine by co-opting Trump.

    Lots of vacuous speculation on the causes by the liberal elites both sides of the Atlantic. None of these includes their betrayal of the working class – Labour’s historic mission.

    Democrats/Blairites still seem amazed that voters are more concerned about economic conditions and resentment against Wall Street (no bankers jailed, few junk mortgages written down). It is a sign of theirwillful blindness that on both sides of the Atlantic they’ve substituted the same identity politics they have used since the 1970’s to divide their constituencies into “hyphenated special-interest groups”.

    Muslims have spent the last 8 years watching Obama murdering their co-religionists in the Umma with drone attacks – over 2,500 killed 400 of them ‘civilians’. Why would they vote for more?

    The ‘deplorable’ have had their revenge – and the most ‘deplorable’ of all are working class white males. They’ve seen the jobs exported and their communities ravaged. If you want to understand these people, read the works of “red-neck socialist” the sadly late Joe Bageant : Dear Hunting with Jesus, Rainbow Pie or some of his essays and other writings at: http://joebageant.net/ .

    In England and Wales the equivalent demographic voted UKIP and Brexit. And why not?

    Black males of all classes know enough about the system through direct contact – too few are working; too many are incarcerated (and hence unable to vote – even when released); and all of them know that they can be summarily executed by ‘law’ enforcement agents at any moment.

    When they rebel, as they will when Trump reneges – the whites will get some of the same. Security Industry shares rose massively on the result.

    Democracy – if it ever existed in the States (it barely does here when a Tory government is ‘elected’ on a fraction of the vote) ceased to exist in the states more than two decades ago.

    A corporate coup was carried out by both the Democratic and Republican parties. In a real democracy neither Trump nor Hillary Clinton would have got near the presidency. As Chris Hedges (Truthdig) has pointed out:

    “The coup was a corporate assault on the working class, the legal system, electoral politics, the mass media, social services, the ecosystem, education and civil liberties in the name of neoliberalism has disemboweled the country. It has left the nation a decayed wreck. We celebrate ignorance. We have replaced political discourse, news, culture and intellectual inquiry with celebrity worship and spectacle.

    In such circumstances who would be surprised at the election of a Fascist buffoon, given that the education system and mass media have brainwashed the population of all critical faculties.

    As Hedges goes onto state (http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/its_worse_than_you_think_20161111):

    “Fascism, as historian Gaetano Salvemini pointed out, is about “giving up free institutions.” It is the product of a democracy that has ceased to function. The democratic form will remain, much as it did during the dictatorships in the later part of the Roman Empire, but the reality is despotism, or in our case, corporate despotism. The citizen does not genuinely participate in power”.

    I’ve been watching and studying these developments for over 30 years. No intelligent person who has done so would have woken up surprised last Wednesday – hence my own muffled unsurprised response.

    Part of the aim of neoliberal politics has been to replace class-based analysis and political organisation with touchy-feely identity feel-good politics. This has been hugely successful.

    In England a revival of sorts is underway under Corbyn – it looks unlikely to succeed.

    Here in Scotland, at least, we have a chance to break away from the neoliberal British state – although the SNP shares much of that baggage – we will at least have the opportunity to elect a government in line with the sentiments of the Scottish people. To paraphrase Bill Clinton: It’s about class – stupid.

  23. Bob Avery New York Trump supporter! says:

    Bob Avery is a valued friend of mine, divorced, two teen age boys he lives on the outskirts of New York and works as a realtor. He has seen tough times, his ex wife was in the WTC at 9.11 but escaped and he has seen property prices rise and fall- Maxwell Macleod.

    I think the unsung hero of this election was Julian Assange. The e mails that were leaked pointed to just how corrupt the democratic party and many of the news networks like CNN MSNBC The New York Times are. They promoted violence at Trump rallies. I was at my home and was glued to the TV all night long. I tried to sleep but woke up every 45 minutes to turn on the T.V to see the results. I would flip from Fox businbess to MSNBC to CNN and I tell you to see lefties in tears was amazing. The one after another the states turned to Donald Trump as the agent of change ” Drain the Swamp” ” Build the wall” and many other tersm reacted with Americans because we dont have anyone in Washington that is working for the Schlub in the street . God Bless President elect Donald J Trump!

  24. Nick says:

    Nick; a writer, editor and comms professional based in Edinburgh.

    There are some phrases you should be woken up with at six in the morning and some you really shouldn’t be. There are some emotions you’re happy to feel when your partner nudges you awake and others you’d rather never happened.
    “Trump’s won” is not a phrase I would ever cherish any more than fear and anger should be the early morning response to an election result in a superpower.
    My boyfriend is trans and American, meaning that this particular political defeat had a very personal aftertaste. He was frightened and I was furious but a few days can bring a new perspective on things. Now we’re both furious.
    Furious that hard-won victories suddenly feel ephemeral, that evidence can so easily be short-circuited by bigotry and that the voices of our better angels are so easily shouted down by the mob.
    I confess that this is not what went through my mind as those two word sunk in. I had more pressing concerns and my anger was still soft, made molten and fluid by confusion and sleeplessness. But fear hardens with the dawn, fashioned by the very fires of bigotry and hate into tools and weapons for the fight that is coming on both sides of the Atlantic.
    More than that, our fury is forged and tempered by an indolent commentary that describes Trump’s election – and the Brexit vote before it – as a backlash of an underprivileged and forgotten majority against a self-indulgent liberal elite. Neither of these statements is true. The genuinely underprivileged are all too often also the disenfranchised, cynically and deliberately denied their vote by the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. As for ‘elite’; it’s an odd use of the word to describe the students and migrants, the elderly and fearful, those countenancing the loss of their marriages or simply control over their own bodies – when a billionaire bully boy just bought the White House.
    So where was I when I heard he’d won? In bed, afraid and comforting the man I love. Where will we be for the next four years? Standing up for ourselves and alongside every person that this dangerous and deceitful man, this would-be tyrant, this latter-day fascist seeks to disempower or humiliate, to deport or imprison, to impoverish or sicken. The question after this election isn’t where you were when you found out – it’s what side did you stand on once you knew.

  25. Max well says:

    Nick setting up this thread was wholly justified just by enabling you to write that magnificent piece it will inspire me in the battles ahead which will be long and bloody but need to be fought
    I only hope that the magnificent Nicola. Has the courage to make an equally strident statement if she does it might even inspire me to join the nasty Nats
    Thiugh don’t hold your breath
    love and respect to you and yours

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