good luck

"The people have spoken -- the bastards!"
~~ Dick Tuck, 1966


______________________________


headlines and thoughts


Headline in today's New York Times:  "Donald Trump is elected president in stunning repudiation of the establishment"


(I'd been thinking the voters were giving a solid middle-finger to Washington D.C. and the status quo..."stunning repudiation" is a more polite description...)


A Reuters headline:  "This is rage against the machine":  voters reject a "rigged" system




Presidential statement:
"We are all rooting for Donald Trump's success now."
~~ Barack Obama





Headline in The Guardian, UK edition:
"Trump's victory.  How he swept to an unreal, surreal presidential election win"





New York Times quotation of the day:
"I think the future of our country is about each one of us, not one person in charge."  Jose Umana, a 49-year-old airline pilot in Coral Gables, Florida





---------------------------------- (Mr. Umana's thought kind of goes along with one I had, which was -- Mr. Donald Trump proved one thing, which some people sometimes say, & some people don't believe -- that One Person Can "Make A Difference"....)




Perspective -- Mr. Trump is 70 years old.  Ronald Reagan was 69 years old when he was elected in 1980.





------------------------------------------ Washington Post headline from two days ago -- "Barack Obama is now viewed more positively than Ronald Reagan was in 1988"


A Reader Comment from Charles in New York State:  "Now we have a President who is a sexual predator, and a First Lady who's a nude model.  We're Italy."








------------------------- The NYT article under the "stunning repudiation" headline, (written by Matt Flegenheimer and Michael Barbaro), said, "...Mr. Trump's unfiltered rallies and unshakable self-regard attracted a zealous following, fusing unsubtle identity politics with an economic populism that often defied party doctrine."




[(echoes down a long hallway -- "often defied party doctrine; often - often - often - defied - defied - defied - ... ...")]




Further in, the article includes a quote:  "He was talking to people who weren't being spoken to," said Joseph Gravagna, 37, a marketing company owner from Rockland County, N.Y.  "That's how I knew he was going to win."


--------------------- ...Those "people who weren't being spoken to" being the working people to whom the establishment "sent the bill" for globalization....


______________________________


Reader Comments on the above-referenced article




Jeff Chernoff, Florida
--------------- No more immigration problems; nobody wants to come here anymore.




Phil Garbett, Manchester, UK
--------------------- After this and previously Brexit in my country, I must abandon any pretence I understand the world.




Harry Karanja, Nairobi
-------------------------- This seems to be a change in tone; from the combative speeches delivered during the campaign, this is very conciliatory.  Donald Trump sounds Presidential.


Hopefully, this acceptance speech is a reflection of how Mr. Trump will run his government.  "Common ground not hostility" sounds almost statesman-like.




Bruce, The World
------------------ Congratulations, Mr. Trump.  Although I abhor your ethics and misogyny, your racist call-outs, and put downs, I do hope that was simply a façade.  I hope that American voters get what they are seeking in you, a better, more equitable, economically vibrant America. 


I hope that the world gets what it needs -- the United States as a leader of nations.  Either way, Americans spoke, and this is the future for four years. 


Good luck!




John, Brooklyn
------------------------ This was elites vs. people, pure and simple. 


The Democrats long ago decided they liked blog writers more than factory workers, even though they kept pretending. 


The Republican establishment liked Wall Street more than Main Street, though they kept pretending.


Trump, the loner in the billionaire's politician club, was the obvious choice.  And despite the entire Republo-Demo-Establishment Media trying to take him out, he won.


Note:  I donated and am thrilled today.




John, Hartford
----------------- The numbers are what they are.  I guess we'll see if Trump is able to deliver what all those white working class voters are expecting from him.






Lisa Kerr, Charleston, West Virginia
-------------------------- As a Bernie Sanders supporter -- all I can say is We told you. 


We told you so. 


We told you that you were making a big mistake. 


We told you that this was a time for a return to the true spirit of FDR and reclaiming the party from the rightward tilt of Bill Clinton's triangulating. 


We told you this was a time to support the American worker and give them hope. 


The hope that was  harnessed by Bernie Sanders all over the nation. 


Someone that all Americans trusted. 


Someone that the world now grieves that the Democratic party and its media blackouts failed to nominate.


We told you so.






Tim McCoy, NYC
---------------------- This is no surprise.  Stunning or otherwise.  Except perhaps to the media and other elites.  To paraphrase the Times's former Public Editor, Margaret Sullivan, now working for the Washington Post, what this represents is an epic fail among said elites.




Italy
--------------------------- It turns out berating a bunch of struggling, working class white families about their "white privilege" and then circling back around to mock them for being poor and uneducated isn't likely to get them to vote for you.  Who could have known.




Alan Brown, New York, NY
----------------------- I am one of those who voted for my party's senior Senator but neither of the presidential candidates. 


I share the concern of many on the future direction of our nation. 


But I hope that President-Elect Trump will exceed our expectations in effectiveness, inclusiveness and success. 


This would not be unprecedented. 


Harry Truman







and Ronald Reagan come immediately to mind.


Perhaps the collective wisdom of the American voter will exceed mine. ...


The President-Elect better be on his game quick because his honeymoon will not be brief; there will be none. 


I expect President Obama will be gracious and helpful in facilitating the transition.  This is not our first bitter election and it will not be our last.  The Constitution is still there and the sun will rise today.


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