The 2016 US presidential election has been officially called in favour of the Republican candidate and presumptive head of state, Donald Trump. Trump has won both the popular vote as well as the required minimum of 270 electoral votes in the Electoral College.
In a year of political upset, the American electorate ensured that election watchers worldwide acclimatise to a world of pragmatic populism and relentless rhetoric.
In a dramatic turn of events during the wee early morning hours (South African Time), Donald Trump turned in an election performance that will go down in the history books as one of the biggest political upsets of all time. Donald Trump performed particularly well in all of the swing states, winning Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina, which gave Trump a huge advantage in the early predictions for the Electoral College. The Trump campaign managed to achieve massive numbers of voter turnout of uneducated white voters in the so-called ‘Rust Belt’ states.
This year has heralded in a new era of unpredictability, with polls incorrectly calling referendums and elections. 2016 has seen all political predictability being tossed out of the window. This election will be scrutinised and studied in depth, and rightly so. The reasons, swings, changes, and sentiments will need to be determined for all parties to learn from.
The 2016 US presidential election seems to be an eye-opening moment for Americans and indeed the world. It seems that this election signals the dissatisfaction of the establishment by many Americans. In many ways, this election showed the discontent with political correctness and failed economic policy. Which was in return greeted with bombastic speech and outright vulgarity which was seen as straight talking and anti-social justice. This election is considered as a high voter turnout election, and the American people have spoken and exercised their democratic right.
A number of questions now remain to be answered: Will a wall really be built and will Trump’s election rival be subject to an investigation that was promised to be instituted by Trump?
All we know at this moment is that both the Democratic Party and Republican Party will have to do some serious introspection.
Rory Short
Both the left and the right in politics are neither of them operating from a point of universal principle. The republicans cannot operate from points of universal principle anyway because they seem to be inherently opposed to such ideas. The Democrats could because they generally give lip service to universal principles but lip service is not enough in itself it has to be backed up by politicians who genuinely espouse universal principles in how they live. Hilary fails on this regard so it is not surprising that Republican bigotry and populism in the form of Donald Trump won the day. I reckon the electorate could see through Hilary whereas Donald is real, he might be bad news but at least he is real.
Harald Sitta
The polls had been wrong as the pollsters had been partizan. It was media and cultural ‘elite’ and establishment and immigration lobby and enshrined interests against one who dared to say “incorrect’ things.