Tom Henihan
Hillary Clinton losing the race for the White House would be a thing of beauty if a consequence of that loss were not Donald Trump being the next president of the United States.
Trump in the Oval Office is a daunting specter, it’s like looking into the abyss and having the abyss look back you.
Apart from the antipathy Hillary Clinton inspires in millions of people including myself, I don’t believe that she deserved the historic accolade of being the first woman president, having accomplished almost everything on the coattails of her husband.
The honour of being the first female president of the United States should belong to a woman whose accomplishments are entirely her own.
It is unfortunate that Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, the daughter of a janitor who waited tables at age 13 and through her own perseverance and intellectual acumen went on to become a renowned academic, senator and a senior member of the Democratic Party.
Due to her upbringing, Warren does not have to feign empathy for average and struggling American families. Having worked in education, consumer affairs and most prominently in practicing law, she could have brought a comprehensive frame of reference to the role, unlike the narrow gauge perspective of a career politician like Clinton.
Everything about Clinton’s campaign looked insincere and scripted. It was scrupulously choreographed yet flat-footed: she seriously underestimated the size of her basket of deplorables, parading out onstage with Beyonce and Jay Z in some vain attempt to win over undecided 12-year-olds.
Finally, the overconfident symbolism of in stalling the proverbial glass ceiling at her headquarters on election night exposed the role she had vainly cast for herself with unmitigated hubris.
As for Donald Trump being the next president of the most power military and economic country in the world is something impossible to comprehend.
It is impossible to envisage a man who has prevailed through brute force and ignorance having the ability not just to listen but to be advised and to act thoughtfully on a daily, even hourly basis over the next four years.
Just as many who voted for Clinton despise her, I am confident that not everyone who voted for Trump like or admire the man.
I can also understand that people voted for Trump as an anarchistic way to bring about change.
If the system is broken and America is divided then instead of having Hillary Clinton tell the Americans and the world that it isn’t broken, then the reasoning for some might be to vote for Trump and let America look exactly like it is; divided, angry and in decline.
Voting for Trump under any premise is reckless, as those with regressive, bigoted ideologies now have legitimacy; there dark thoughts can be expressed in the light of day because there is someone in the White House who has riled and encouraged the display of those negative emotions and openly expressed his solidarity.
It is ironic, that a billionaire, born into a wealthy family, who started out with a large inheritance promises to take power away from the elite. It is also ironic that a president, having campaigned against illegal immigration is bringing to the White House a First Lady who got her start in the US working illegally.