I knew a Trump voter in the UK...she's no longer my friend.

I won't ever put my own complicated foreign financial situation above the safety, well-being, and civil rights of my friends.

I stand with the "there is no reason" crowd.

I agree completely.  I feel pretty strongly that anyone who voted for Trump simply because it might simplify their tax matters has made a very selfish decision.

If there is one thing I am grateful for because of the election, it is finally really understanding that a person's incredible "niceness" to me on a personal level is not necessarily an indication of whether that person would have voted for Hitler in 1930s Germany.

I'm not an expat yet, but due to having a rare disease need people in my life that I definitely will not always agree with & our only bond is that we both have the same crappy genes. This election brought out THE WORST behavior I have ever seen in my life. These people are my support network when I have no idea which doctor I need, so I can't just unfriend them, but I also unfollowed many. They've been there for me, helping me to doctors appointments and things like that, but I just can't tolerate the crazy.   (I figured I'd add something back on topic, but the FATCA discussion was interesting!)

This election brought out THE WORST behavior I have ever seen in my life.

Well yes. It's interesting. I see a lot of triumphalism in comment sections and things. A lot of sites are stingy with below the line commenting now, so I have noticed on the Guardian website a rising tide (tsunami?) of right wing crowing.

I don't know....maybe the memories of celebrations over Obama and that sort of thing are still in the minds of the right.

In England there has always seemingly been this 'hard done by' mindset...be it perceived grievances against France or Europe or multiculturalism or PC or Catholics or Celts - so I suppose it is understandable that they see some sort of vindication in all of this. Though I hope they understand that this victory is temporary.

But it certainly seems to have emboldened people to speak their mind.

On election night I was already planning my victory lecture to the losing Trump supporters I was going to tell them that racism and discrimination based on religion is fundamentally against American values and they should learn some real facts and pay better attention before voting again. 

Unfortunately, my team lost and I really thought about taking my own advice.  I had to accept that I was wrong, and perhaps America has about 50% who will support openly racist ideas and religious discrimination.  The Trump supporters were right about one thing, America is not what I thought it was.  I've never felt more like I don't fit in there.

Unfortunately, my team lost and I really thought about taking my own advice.  I had to accept that I was wrong, and perhaps America has about 50% who will support openly racist ideas and religious discrimination.  The Trump supporters were right about one thing, America is not what I thought it was.  I've never felt more like I don't fit in there.

It doesn't, though. Hillary won well over 50% of the popular vote, and voter turnout was depressingly low. I think we can safely assume that the majority of adult Americans don't agree with Trump's rhetoric. If Trump were smart or any kind of a statesman, he would recognise this and reach out to the people who voted against him. But he's not, so he's not; instead he's doubling down on the bigotry and post-truth agenda with his cabinet appointees and climate-change-denying environmental policy. He's an idiot who thinks he's smart, and our best hope for the future is that this will be his downfall. Don't give up on your speech yet.

As an aside, this idea that politics is a game of teams, and your team wins or loses is, IMO, one of the major things wrong with political discourse at the moment. But that's a topic for another thread

It doesn't, though. Hillary won well over 50% of the popular vote, and voter turnout was depressingly low. I think we can safely assume that the majority of adult Americans don't agree with Trump's rhetoric. If Trump were smart or any kind of a statesman, he would recognise this and reach out to the people who voted against him. But he's not, so he's not; instead he's doubling down on the bigotry and post-truth agenda with his cabinet appointees and climate-change-denying environmental policy. He's an idiot who thinks he's smart, and our best hope for the future is that this will be his downfall. Don't give up on your speech yet.

As an aside, this idea that politics is a game of teams, and your team wins or loses is, IMO, one of the major things wrong with political discourse at the moment. But that's a topic for another thread

Exactly this. If you take the voting population as a sample and scale it, then the results show that more people *don't* support the rhetoric than do. Just because the electoral system we have in place doesn't reflect that, doesn't mean we didn't do all we were supposed to in trying to prevent the outcome.

Also I agree, this election preyed on the natural inclination to be "tribal" and that worked an absolute treat for one side. There's probably LOADS on the psychology of this and I think it's fascinating from a marketing perspective...the whole "find your tribe" narrative indeed!

Yes, but there are multiple millions....a pretty good chunk. It's not just a basket of deplorables....or it's a really big basket I suppose.

But it is interesting hearing the words 'liberal (in the true/European sense)" and "progressive" being hammered so hard. Again, I thought that we were pretty much all on board that progress was good and that liberalism in the philosophical (you know science, reason) sense were sort of what pulled us out of the dark ages.

Hillary won well over 50% of the popular vote, and voter turnout was depressingly low.

Hillary actually had less than 50% of the popular vote due to third-party candidates (but still more votes than Trump).

Yes, but there are multiple millions....a pretty good chunk. It's not just a basket of deplorables....or it's a really big basket I suppose.

But it is interesting hearing the words 'liberal (in the true/European sense)" and "progressive" being hammered so hard. Again, I thought that we were pretty much all on board that progress was good and that liberalism in the philosophical (you know science, reason) sense were sort of what pulled us out of the dark ages.

Hillary actually had less than 50% of the popular vote due to third-party candidates (but still more votes than Trump).

You're right, I just saw the numbers today, and Hillary's at over 48%, with Trump at about 46. Roughly 2 million more for Hillary. Ironically, if she'd won the electoral college with only 48%, the Republicans would be shouting about how that's not a majority and she doesn't have a mandate, etc etc, but with Trump at 46%, he's got a strong mandate to tear down Obama's progress. Arrrghhh.

62,379,366 / 242,470,820 (adults, 2013, Census Bureau) = 25.73% for Trump

Ok, so some of those adults might have dementia, etc. but you get the point.

And why do I struggle, at age 41, to spell bureau and have to look it up every time? I guess I need to use it more.

You guys are making the assumption that anyone who didn't vote was not a Trump supporter.  I'm not convinced, I would imagine anyone with half a brain knew how important this election was.  The people who didn't vote are either stupid, lazy or a combination of both.  They are not progressive thinkers and they are not proof that America is better than Trump.  If anything they are worse than Trump voters. 

Historyanne, I agree with your thoughts about "teams " and just used it as shorthand in my post.  As proof, you can see that in an earlier post, I took someone to task for saying that because Hillary supporters called for Ivanka to be raped, then Trump's sexual assaults were cancelled out.  In other words, voting for the supporters rather than the candidate. 

I had a political argument with a Big Issue seller where he was quoting Alex Jones and infowars as a real source of news!  This is going to be a long four years.

I had a political argument with a Big Issue seller where he was quoting Alex Jones and infowars as a real source of news! 

Well he is in the trade.

True enough.  He was pretty well informed.