The results of the American election have come as a surprise to many. As with other recent votes, the confident predictions of polls and commentators have been shown to be woefully out of touch with the reality of how the democratic majority of people actually feel.
It is no exaggeration to say that the American political system is broken, but this was true long before the votes were counted in favour of President Trump. No campaign in living memory has been so acrimonious, so deeply personal, not only between the candidates themselves but between their supporters. Perhaps the nadir of this campaign will come to be recognised as the moment Hillary Clinton labelled Trump’s supporters as “deplorables”; it is hard to gather a mandate when you directly insult what turns out to be 58 million people.
