Not Possible!

Two days ago in the United States, something happened that some are describing as a miracle, and others are calling a nightmare.

The article I had ready was very different from this one.

Donald Trump’s election shows us that the U.S. electorate has a very weird sense of humor. The majority think he’s not trustworthy, but they elect him. A recognized misogynist, Trump got the votes of many women, especially white women.

In addition, Trump’s election also confirmed something very disheartening for us regarding what the United States stands for: The election points out that racism still persists. To many white people, including those without much education, eight years of the first African-American U.S. president were unacceptable. It shows us that it is not a tolerant multiracial society, that African-Americans don’t matter, and that even Hispanics and Asians don’t have the presence that some thought they had to offset the white majority.

This electoral cycle in the United States has also demonstrated how flawed that country’s opinion polling system is. This was apparent from the profound ignorance the political class (the so-called establishment) had about their own country. Neither party, Republican or Democrat, appreciated the anger of those sectors of society that have seen themselves marginalized by free trade and the ever-increasing profits of Wall Street and the big corporations.

The candidates, with the exception of Sen. Bernie Sanders, didn’t know how to win over millennials (people between 18 and 35 years old). At first, Hillary Clinton told them to vote for her because she’s a woman. Let’s remember what Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright, among others, said a year ago. It turns out that the gender of the candidates doesn’t matter much to the millennials. Many of them ended up voting for Trump.

The media didn’t do a good job, either. Many of them didn’t do their homework. Hundreds of newspapers endorsed Clinton, and only a few supported Trump. But it’s one thing to make an endorsement, and something completely different to do an effective job of informing the electorate about the candidates. They made fun of Trump, and defended Clinton.

The television networks gave Trump a great deal of coverage because they saw him (at least at first) as a clown who could boost their audience share. They forgot to take his proposals seriously, and let him get away with not making his tax returns public, as all candidates for decades have done.

The media simply didn’t insist that the candidates provide details of their substantive proposals on the economy, immigration and foreign policy. They chose instead to accentuate their role as providing fun and entertainment over taking journalistic responsibility.

The only one who didn’t lie was Trump.

What looked like it would be a historic turning point, the passing of the baton from the first African-American president to the first woman president, has turned into something quite different, and dangerous. With Trump in the White House, and a decidedly Republican Congress, it’s quite possible that, aided by a right-leaning Supreme Court, many of the accomplishments of the past 50 years, above all on social issues, may be dismantled.