[0762]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2016-37932231
How refreshing to see huge protests against Trump by a predominantly young generation that overwhelmingly opposed Trump in the vote, as opposed to this significant older white American blue collar vote, and all the shit that he represents!! A common call amongst them is to overhaul the voting system in America as many people now view it as outdated and being used to destroy a lotta the decent progressive policies that Obama promoted!! Where have I seen the same phenomenon before where a younger generation of voters have been let down by opinion/vote of a so called wiser generation? in this case to vote for a fascist and a bully, a huge tax dodger and one of the most corrupt/unscrupulous businessmen you could ever encounter with lots of evidence to back it up! Will we ever learn from the mistakes of the past when dealing with fascists like Trump? I despair listening to the compromise of values, the appeasement and even some praise from people that I'd certainly regard as 'loopy' in the head as highlighted by many younger Americans who are rightly protesting and not waiting for the inevitable negative right-wing shit and policies that they regard as very unwelcome in their country. As said previously, I hope Trump has lotsa bodyguards because he will be a prime target within an out of control gun-toting country called the USA!!

[0762]

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/after-trump-vi...redirect=1

And a new 'twist' unfolds in this US election fiasco - a new rallying call sweeping America called #Not my president. No surprise to me and many younger Americans condemning this fascist and lotsa older Americans professing they fought against the fascist views and bullying that Trump has displayed throughout his poisonous electioneering campaign, the worst in American political history!! The plot thickens with a huge proportion of the US population polarised and not backing this divisive president elect!! I'm impressed to see people out there still willing to confront fascism and fascist bullies! Great stuff and the voice of offence and righteousness prevails loud n clear against a common enemy, an enemy that many of our relatives fought against and many heroes sacrificed their lives to uphold and retain these values!!

[St Charles Owl]

I'm not sure this is "sweeping" across America, it is really a few thousand students or younger people staging protests in the major cities of the US. Unfortunately we all know where this will end, and that invariably over here sees these events turn violent, with vandalism of the community they live in, followed by looting and eventually a lot of arrests!!! We have already seen violence in Oakland and many arrests in other cities for minor disturbances or failing to keep moving when asked to do so by the police, I expect that to continue sadly.

The other side of this whole protest though is what percentage of those protesting actually voted anyway? At one of my daughters college there was a large walkout and protest by a few thousand students, and my daughter was horrified to find many of her friends out protesting when she knows they didn't even vote!!! The Hispanic vote once again failed to materialize in many states, particularly in some of the swing states. It appears that the turnout for Hispanics was likely not up overall (48% in 2012), despite there being an extra 4m registered Hispanic voters this year, and to make it worse Hillary managed to get a lower % of the Hispanic vote compared to Obama 4 years ago (and maybe worse, Trump got a higher % of the Hispanic vote than Romney 4 years ago!!). With all the horrible comments made by Trump during the campaign towards this large demographic you would have thought if ever there was an election where they would be motivated to turn out in large numbers, then this was it!!

On the subject of polarisation of the US, that has been going on since the days of George H W Bush, and with each president the gap widens. This level of protesting was seen after Obama was elected, just a slightly different protester back then, and the very nature of any election, especially one as nasty as this one was, will see serious divisions in the population. But the people have spoken, wrongly in my eyes but for the sake of the country there has to be a desire for some unity and allowing some time for the new President to get into office and begin working. I was very critical of people who openly said they hoped Obama would fail completely, and I am critical of those who are now saying the same thing about trump. Wishing the country to fail helps absolutely no one!! The tweet I saw yesterday from a high up Trump insider suggesting that we will see a very different President Trump to the one we saw on the campaign trail will hopefully be accurate, if not then the Democrats have to use their influence and somewhat small power to make sure the Republicans are at the very least challenged and kept honest.

[0762]

Good comments and a definite criticism re Clinton's failure to embrace the apathetic Hispanic and black community vote - an absolutely fatal mistake to 'expect' their vote and one that Trump was not gonna gain! The big question that you've not really commented on is, 'Is this man really a fascist or is all the evidence, some of it documented, and other stuff televised, just an act'? I don't believe it's an act and there are millions n millions of failed and alarmed American voters who view it in exactly the same way. You are clearly playing the 'compromise card' ( give the guy a chance) as I previously predicted many influential global leaders would do if Trump won against the odds. We've made the same error in history (there are great historical examples of this scenario) time and again and we never seem to learn IMO with these kinda bullish political people who believe their extreme views should not be challenged. Also it's not the 1st time we've come across a fascist American president but the end result will be as damaging as it normally is for any other country with a fascist element 'ruling the roost'. In Scotland, we only got a small flavour of Trump and the politics governing the controversial approval and implementation of his golf course + the events that followed and the action against local folk who opposed the scheme or trespassed on his property. It became very clear from various anecdotes and affidavits that the man is clearly a fascist and a bully and should never have been anywhere near a US presidential candidacy, let alone being the occupant of the oval office!!! IMO American politics failed the American population but the political global failure could have a massive impact beyond the shores of the USA if Trump decides to stick his fascist nose in foreign affairs well beyond American shores. I pray that he sticks to the domestic attention/help that America is in dire need of! Whether he does exactly that is anybody's guess!

[St Charles Owl]

To answer your question about whether he truly is a fascist or not - my honest answer is I don't know!! The guy is an entertainer and a businessman, in the past he hasn't had to worry so much about public opinion, in fact being a bit controversial probably just ends up being good publicity for him!!! I always got the feeling he was in it for the publicity and to shake things up a bit, never truly thinking himself that he would ever get this far.

Saw an interesting piece yesterday where previous presidents senior aides going back to Reagan were interviewed about the aura of the White House and what it was like for guys when they first stepped into the Oval Office. All of them said that it was a very sobering event for the presidents, it presented a huge amount of sudden realism about the importance of the job ahead and the lives now in their hands. To a man they all pointed out that all of them seemed to move politically towards the middle after that. The hardest part for them was the security briefings. Trump got his first full one today, the same one Obama got, and these aides said that usually completely shocked the new guys, from both the dangers posed, the in depth nature, the things they simply didn't know behind the scenes and the volumes of intelligence that never gets to the media!! Again, suddenly the new presidents were quiet, less boisterous, even in some cases at times of tension less gung-ho!!! I am truly hoping the reality of the office, the enormity of the task ahead of him and the seriousness of security and international relations will allow us to see a different side of him.

I still think a lot of what he said in the past was rhetoric, sure it was crass a lot of the time but I get the feeling he knew what to say to give him the best chance of being elected. The groups he pissed off in reality were groups that were never going to vote for him anyway, and at the moment its all words not actions. Its very noticable that his policies were either sensational but probably unachievable and the rest were very vague. He cannot build a wall physically, he cannot logistically deport 11m Mexicans and he cannot disband NATO. Words like this through appealed to the lowest educated part of the electorate, a group that he managed to become invigorated and determined to vote. If there is one thing all politicians should learn from him its that getting someone to support you is one thing, getting all of them to actually vote is another. I reckon just about every person who would want to vote for Trump, actually did, whereas potentially millions of Hillary supporters simply were not enthused enough to vote or thought she would win without their vote anyway. Look at Wisconsin, solid blue state since the 80s, she didn't go there once during the campaign, trump went a few times and held large rallies, and he took that state and its 10 votes fairly easily!! Big mistake!!!

Its not a compromise card I am playing, its a reality one. He won the election fair and square, he will be President whether we like it or not and no amount of protests will change that, nor should it. If he has any sense he will take notice of the protests, but thats about all we can hope for. He has a clear mandate, he has full control of the political landscape, its up to all of us to make sure he is kept in check and even if we do not fully like what he does he has the right to do it. All the democrats can do is try o keep him honest and stick together because most things he wants to push through will require 60% for it to get it through the House and Senate, and that means some democrats will have to vote yes, they can stop things but it will be tough to stop everything. They should also start preparing now for 2020, they need to keep the youth of the country involved and they need to get out the black and hispanic vote in larger numbers than ever before, but most of all they need to find a proper, quality candidate, one that isn't as tainted as Hillary was from the very start, one that wouldn't have to spend a huge chunk of campaign time answering questions about issues surrounding her rather than combating her opponent. A good, clean (ish) experienced Democrat should have beaten trump easily, Hillary wasn't that!!!!

[hibeejim21]

If what he said in the past was just rhetoric then that makes him even more dangerous than he actually is.

People of colour in the US are terrified - hundreds of attacks and abuse incidents against Muslims, latinos, blacks, Asians, women... The KKK have even held a victory rally.

If hes not a fascist he's a monumental dick. Either way its bad news.

[ritchiebaby]

I realise what I am about to say is certainly not PC and to some people might even be considered inflammatory, but it's truly what I believe has happened in the USA and to a lesser extent in the UK in recent debates.

By far the majority of the political and media establishment have made pronouncements about being inclusive to all, and then deliberately quoted these groups - black people, LGBT, disabled, immigrants and more. What these establishment figures have not done is include the easily largest group of all and therefore the group with the greatest voting power - white heterosexuals. This has resulted in large numbers of this group being sufficiently disillusioned to vote against the establishment and this is what has happened in the USA and Brexit votes.

I will gladly say that I definitely do not include myself in this disillusioned group, but obviously many feel let down by the establishment, resulting in a backlash. I don't like Trump nor Farage, but they do say what many people are thinking (perhaps secretly for fear of being labelled as prejudiced) and attract disillusioned voters like moths to the light.

[0762]

Reflect back to the 1930s and three fascist leaders called Hitler, Mussolini and Franco! The extreme political methods and rhetoric that were used to attract a naive and vulnerable proportion of their voting population were no different to what I've observed in this USA election. Targeting Jews, gypsies and immigrants in pre war Germany? Swap that for Muslims, Mexicans and other minority groups!! Also look at the violent and highly antagonistic groups who have been following Trump - same again when reflecting back to that historical period when fascism and nazism was allowed to go unchecked. I hope Trump tempers what he's been preaching because I strongly believe he will be a dead president, an assassinated one, within two years of his reign esp in gun-toting America! A man who strongly backs the use of the gun, contrary to the futile attempts of Obama to curb it's use, will ironically be the eventual victim of the gun and, even after such a colossal incident, the 2nd amendment will still remain in place - that's how 'nutty' the whole gun scene actually is 'across the pond'!!!

[hibeejim21]

trump backtracking on obamacare and prosecuting clinton already. I'm not that worried about Trump himself anymore, it's the lunatics behind him like Pence, Carson and Ryan that scare me.

[0762]

Yep! Well spotted Jim. Some of their extreme views border on criminality! It's a joke and it could only happen in the Disunited States of America where black Americans are shot for fun by certain racist members of their state police forces! These right-wing fascists are the last officials to throw into such a potent mix!! I just hope the American political system, and the way it's set up, will control the extreme elements of their future policies and behaviour.