By Patrick
Well, it is happened, the Americans have elected a vindictive racist narcissistic moron into the most important position in the world, with the power the blow the whole world up, and what could now possibly go wrong?
I am very angry, because I believe that many sides are to blame for this catastrophic result, and as I am not connected to any US party, I feel free to speak my mind.
This has been in the making for decades, and ever since the word "Liberal" became an insult in the eyes of many, the American democracy has been in great danger. Nobody knows this better than the Germans.
In Germany, we were once confronted with the fact that the minds of a large part of the population had been poisoned, and these people then also motivated a lot of other people to vote for an evil person. The results were catastrophic, as well all know.
The parallels to Nazi-Germany are too obvious. In Germany, it was the right-wing Hugenberg press-empire which made Adolf Hitler respectable, and in the USA, it was Fox News in particular as well as many right-wing radio shows all around the country which made extreme right-wing views respectable.
Yes, this election was manipulated, by Russian hackers, Wikileaks and Mr. Comey, but it is a huge failure of the political system as a whole that a flawed candidate like Donald Trump was possible in the first place.
Donald Trump cannot act within a democracy, because his twisted and sick mind does not allow it. He can only function as a dictator. If he does not become the "American Putin", I will eat my hat.
Moderate Republicans should have stopped Trump, but they were far too self-absorbed and could not commit to one strong candidate to run against Trump. Then, the #NeverTrump people could not bring themselves to vote for Hillary and wasted their votes as a result.
The Democrats obviously lost their connection to a large part of their traditional base, which is terrible.
Not enough was also done against the destruction of the middle class - now many of them turned to an extremist.
I am also very upset that Barack Obama continued to expand the surveillance state, with the naive belief that this monstrous surveillance machine would only be used for justified actions. It should have been more than obvious that this machine can also be abused, and I am pretty certain that Donald Trump's domestic enemies will get "first impressions" of this fact pretty soon. With the available surveillance technology, virtually everybody is an open book, as all communications can be easily monitored, and real privacy has become virtually impossible. Good luck with that.
This might not be a popular view, but I really don't care, sorry: It was a huge mistake in my opinon to construct and expand this huge surveillance machine. It will soon be in the hands of Donald Trump and his ruthless extreme right-wing allies. They surely will put it to "good use."
What else is there to say? There really is little hope. It will not be bad, it will be worse. Many Americans will suffer, and probably many people abroad as well. History tells us that people like Donald Trump are hell-bent to start wars, and I do not believe that Trump will be the exception.
Democracy in the USA will soon become a travesty. This is inevitable. The most important features, like the free media and free speech, will be under real threat, no doubt about it,
The media failed as well, as we have often discussed in the comments. They can now become his claqueurs, because much more won't be possible any more.
The prophecy by H. L. Mencken from 1920, it finally became true:
The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.
The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
Rebecca Schoenkopf at Wonkette has some harsh words for her fellow citizens.
Many people don't know yet what will hit them. They will know it pretty soon.
I feel very sorry for the good Americans who are now caught up in this mess. This should have been avoided.
