ON ITSELF AT THE BALLOT BOX
Creating fear is no way to solve crisis
were moving to China and Mexico. And anger at that hated elite – in this case Washington rather than Brussels.
“It’s because Trump is not a politician, he’s right there with the people.
“That’s the thing that’s so beautiful about it,” a young art rep called Reed Turchetti told me after the rally.
Reeling, I headed for Ohio. I drove through farming country and chatted to people as they swept leaves or mowed the lawn or tinkered with their cars.
Almost everyone was voting Trump. Their neighbours and friends were, too, they said. Dean Brown, a retired engineer, told me he was voting for the Republican precisely because he was “a loose cannon”. “That’s what we need,” he explained. “Obama apologises to everybody and the next thing you know, we get something like 9/11. You have to have somebody who is strong.”
Obama and Clinton, just like David Cameron and the Remain campaign, were the failing establishment. Trump, like Vote Leave, had positioned himself as the upstart and the patriotic choice.
There is a sense of nostalgia sweeping the US, a pining for the good old days when it ruled the world and did not have to worry about homeland security. It has echoes of that “age of Empire” rhetoric which pervades every UKIP rally.
“I do like Trump. I like the way he’s showing strength,” said 70-year-old Tom Smith, a retired photographer from Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. “After the Second World War, we were the strongest nation in the world. Now we’re starting to get pretty weak.”
Tom’s case for voting Trump was about patriotism, plain and simple.
Pennsylvania was the final stop on my tour of the American rust belt, a land which once voted Democrat but this week handed the keys to the White House to Donald Trump.
Luzerne County is an old coal-mining area which had not voted Republican in 40 years. But I found voters like Tom, who backed Barack Obama in 2012, were now switching to Donald Trump.
“Yeah I switched,” he said. “I don’t trust the Clintons. They’ve been constantly living high off the taxpayer their whole life.” Again and again I heard this refrain. In the eyes of millions of America’s voters, the Clintons are the living embodiment of the Washington political class.
“It’s not so much what I like about Trump – it’s what I hear about Hillary. She’s a liar,” said Brandon Underkoffler, who works at a casino in Wilkes-Barre. “So I think we have a better chance with him.”
People like Brandon were absolutely key to fuelling Trump’s victory.
He was 28 years old, white, and had never voted before. But the battle between Trump and Clinton had convinced him to register for the first time this year.
Anti-immigration. Patriotism. A nostalgic wish for greater days. A burning desire to kick a distant political elite.
Donald Trump was the outsider, the upstart in this election just as Vote Leave was in June. The polls and the experts never gave either one a chance.
They were wrong. Where it leads us all now, we can only wait and see.
We’re pretty weak.. I like the way Trump’s showing strength
TOM SMITH OAP ON WHAT MADE HIM VOTE TRUMP MANY people will be shocked by Donald Trump’s victory and his nasty and divisive campaign.
Trump’s election is our latest global wake-up call. We need a real alternative to a failed political and economic system.
His victory is an unmistakable rejection of a system that simply isn’t working for most people. It has given us escalating inequality and falling living standards.
Too many people in the US and Britain have been left behind.
In both countries, people feel angry that their communities have been abandoned, and angry at the lack of investment and job opportunities for young people. It’s a message we’ve got to heed.
We need a society that is prepared to invest in infrastructure, housing, education and healthcare and in the quality jobs those industries support – a society that is not going to leave anyone behind.
Many of Trump’s solutions, and the divisive rhetoric around them, are clearly wrong.
FAILED
We need leaders who do not abuse women, or use racist rhetoric, and who do not pit one group of people against another.
Donald Trump won by a narrow margin, leaving voters across America divided. He has now got to bring people together.
I have no doubt that the decency and common sense of the American people will prevail, and we send our solidarity to a nation of migrants, innovators and democrats.
Everyone has to be included in our political decisions and the way we take those decisions.
This truth applies as much in Europe as in the US.
The real alternative to the failed politics of business as usual will be achieved by working together, social justice and economic renewal, rather than sowing fear and division.
The solutions we offer have to improve the lives of everyone, not set people against each other.
Americans have made their choice. The urgent necessity now is for us all to work across continents to tackle our shared global challenges – to secure peace, to take action on climate change and to deliver economic prosperity and justice.