I am still appalled with my government's democratic and republican parties. These were really the best candidates you had to offer?? Unbelievable. At least it's over and I know who I have to deal with for the next 4 years...

We have to be strong and look after each other. We've survived a civil war. We've survived TWO world wars. We've survived the Cold War, and the Bush administration. We'll survive this.

And for those in need of a little encouragement, here's a few words of wisdom from the great George Takei.

This is not the time to lose hope and faith. We have to stand up for our friends. Muslims and Latinos will be more marginalized than ever, and this election will encourage more racists to come out of the woodworks, like what is happening in the UK. We'll need to stand up for our fellow Americans. Let's be strong.

- Wow, that's a really awful person you had to deal with. Stay safe.

It's sad to know those people do exist and will most likely become more vocal and perhaps more violent. The vocal aspect is at least coming true on the internet and it breaks my heart that so many people have so much hate.

...I just hope it's a very small, loud minority who won't get any worse.

LOL like 'Ouch! How did that just happen?' Hehe

I certainly can't speak for anyone else but I do not fail to understand that sentiment at all. What people using that idea to defend trump have failed to understand is that, I'd venture to say almost ALL Americans are sick of being ruled by the corrupt elite. The problem is, he's no outsider. I definitely understand and agree with getting out of the same old pot, but he was not the one to give us that! He's just as corrupt as these cronies he went up with and against. He IS the money/lobbyist force we all want out of the government. And he's an immoral human being to boot, much like the rest of them but without the self control or sense to filter it for the sake of peace.

He has no experience in compromise and he's seen failure after failure and dealt with it through denial every time. He doesn't even want the responsibilities that come along with the job, just the title. He doesn't care about us, he's out to make more connections, gain more status, and line his pockets. His tax breaks will be for the elite. He will turn on the middle class and poor who voted him in almost immediately while talking big about reversing Obama's work in social progress to keep them happy. 'Religious freedom' and bathroom laws will abound and we'll have to fight for access to birth control all over again. And the cause Laurie is out fighting for? Forget about that! I wouldn't be surprised to see military force authorized if nodapl warriors are still out there when he's inaugurated. He is all for pipelines and anything else that will get him money regardless of harm to the Earth.

Hillary has snuck around to get her agenda done, as most politicians do -and it is ridiculous and terrible- but with his election trump has gained and given a pass to be callous to others and the Earth.

[Spoiler=omg I just keep talking] Around here, we talk about the president mostly being a puppet/figure head/scapegoat because aside from a few things the powers that be will do what they want anyway and just blame the top. This one is one of those possessed scary ones. :/

We really failed the country during the primaries. There were better candidates on both sides and we fell into the sensationalist disgusting trap that is our media. I failed because I didn't educate myself on how primaries worked in this state and didn't get my vote in then. It wouldn't have been for either of them.

I can only hope now that every branch of our government is ruled by the same majority that they will stop fighting each other and actually work, preferably for the people. But I fear it will be no different. There isn't a democratic majority to blackball trumps every move and force him to go the way of executive order like we've been dealing with, but that doesn't make the pettiness ingrained in these people disappear, or remove the money greasing their palms. It's almost like you have to fail a maturity, integrity, and team working tests to even run for government. V_v in the end, it's just another day and our lives come down to how we live them unless some major scary changes happen. We need to focus more on communicating and understanding each other rather than flaming each other, shouting, plugging our ears, surrounding our selves with like-minds and repeating endless jokes and rant memes on Facebook. All these people we're disagreeing with are our friends and family and we're just rolling our eyes and insulting each other talking about how brain washed each side is. Why?

And we all feel unheard, how many of us are actually using the proper channels to demand our officials truly represent us? Get off Twitter and write a letter, make a phone call, go to a meeting! (She says standing in the mirror).

I guess what I'm really worried about, and hopeful about at the same time, is figuring out what most people on the opposite side of all this really mean when they say they want their country back and what's on that track you wish we were back on. There are the hate mongers but there are also people who really aren't that far removed from the middle. Can we find common ground? Will this round of government even care to try?[/spoiler]

Bush was many things and I disliked Bush. I wasn't scared of Bush though. I just thought he was an idiot. The rhetoric that Trump has spewed throughout this entire election is what scared me with his presidency bid. Also, his policies which pretty much alienated the entire international community. That said, we have to live with it since he's now our president and maybe, just maybe, the congress will block him because they realize how dangerous he is.

:D I'm glad Trump won. Can't wait for him and our idiot Premiere to finally meet up. Trudeau's been anti-Trump since this election began, this is going to be amazing.

This is horrifying. I knew we had problems in this country, but I didn't know it was this bad

Edit: "Hi, This is a post-election comforting cookie. Please take a couple deep breaths, stay safe and never stop believing in better tomorrows. As a wise man once said, Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light. With Love, Foreign Anon <3 "

Thanks so much, Foreign Anon <3

I feel so lost right now.

To the Foreign Anon who gave me the post-election consolation cookie: Thank you. Thanks for being excellent.

It could be that you are entirely right. On the other hand, maybe Trump will turn his formidable energy into being the best possible president he can be, for sheer ego if for no other reason. I quite agree, I wish almost any of the other 16 had been chosen instead of him. Hell, I was really pulling for Carly Fiorina. I liked her and it would have been great to have TWO women running for president.

So I'm kind of curious about something. I don't think that anyone that has posted here has voted for him. But if you know someone who did, have they told you why? I am trying to wrap my head around how this mess happened. Someone that I work with looked at me and said, "I voted for him, but I don't agree with 100% of what he says", and I'm pretty sure that his argument was mostly for his economic policies. However, this guy has a teenage daughter, I think she's like 17 or something like that. How could he help to vote someone like this into office? It feels like he's basically saying that he doesn't care what happens to his daughter. The other person that I know that voted for him was literally all about the fact that he genuinely thought that anyone running as a Democrat or 3rd party would take away guns, and he was one of those people who thinks that the wall is a good idea.

I am disgusted with my country, and doubly disgusted with my country mates. With that being said, I understand why Trump managed to win. It wasn't spoken by the people, but by racism, hatred, and lies.

My family is originally from Upstate NY. Unless you're from Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, or Cortland, upstate is the red blob of NY. So I'm blue in a sea of red. (Thank GOD NYC has some fucking brains and will always be blue) However, I'm really trying to do my best and understand WHY Trump is so adored. The reason why Trump got so much support here is because Hilary is HATED here. She's our state senator and has done NOTHING for us.....so people think she failed here she'll fail as president.

From what I've seen Trump is fear and humiliation based. The people see the world changing in a way that is out of their control and they aren't comfortable with. I'm not talking about white flight, but terrorism and violence. They think our country is becoming more unsafe (while crime has statistically gone down), and because the media loves to publish violence against whites, (Paris attacks vs stuff in Syria) they think they're the targets. Misinformation about 9-11? It must be our lifestyle Daesch hates, it can't be our foreign policy! It's scary! Now, we have lax immigration laws and sanctuary cities, not only are already are already lack of jobs, but now the Mexicans are coming for us! (Sensationalism cuts wayyyy deeper than statistics)

Now we must have a lesson on humiliation. A lotttttt of Trump supporters are blue collar workers who have seen their jobs shelled out abroad, for cheaper wages, away from their homes, and also to machines instead. Former farmers, miners, and factory workers are no longer empowered by jobs of might. The blue collar job has switched from a sweaty, physical endeavor, to "do you want fries with that" or " welcome to Walmart."

Let's face it, no one wrote country songs about the service industry.

It sounds whiny, immature, and stupid, but if you talk to those people it's both humiliating and emasculating, two emotions that are honest and awful.

So you have scared people, and you have humiliated people. And you have this guy who says he's gonna make that stop. And what the hell, he's got the balls to grab a women and he has the smarts to get rich...maybe...just maybe he can make that happen too.

And that's what's terrifying.

I think it's safe to say people from both sides voted out of fear and anger. Yes there were bigots that voted for trump, but a majority of the people voted out of fear for what Hillary stood for. She wanted to continue with our current system that isn't working. She like all other politicians was a liar just gaining favor for presidency. She was also found to have no regard for national security, whether it was because she thought herself above the law or for more malicious reasons is unknown as she hasn't been brought to trial. She even went as far as taking money and making shady deals to fund her own personal gains (remember she publicly announced being broke after Bill left office). I think what it boils down to is people are fed up with all the corruption in the government, myself included. Trump is a horrible person and the wrong person but his campaign was built on weeding out the corrupt and keeping America capitalist on the foundations of democracy. Whether or not this is also a lie to gain favor is uncertain, but judging by how blunt he has been I think people believe him more than her and feel that he's truly out to protect the country.

Similarly, people for Hillary fear trump and fear that he will take away all the rights of minorities based on his past actions and brashness. They saw her as the lesser of two evils but evil is still evil. They too did what they thought was best for this country. We all did what we thought was best for this country, but we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. I think this article sums it up very well.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about/

I am happy with the election results and our President-Elect. I am happy that I voted for him and have supported him. Does this make me a racist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, xenophobic asshole? I don't think so. I think claiming that he was chosen through "racism, hatred, and lies" is an incredibly ignorant thing to say as well.

Welp, guess it's time to stay off Facebook for a while. Too many people shouting sexism/racism/etc. right now(and slut shaming of Trump's wife... way to be progressive, guys!). I'm just hoping that if Trump tries anything too crazy he'll get shut down by Congress(for the record, I didn't get registered in time to vote, but would've voted third party anyway). But hey, weed got legalized in (at least?) three more states! Don't use it myself, but I'm glad.

That definitely would have been something!! Then no one could claim it was sexism or feminism that got the first woman president elected! lol I'm one of those damned socialists and liked Bernie - mostly because he repeatedly said no president could do a damn thing effectively without the people putting in work. We shouldn't be just sitting back and letting the country run itself, if we all took a more serious and involved/active role in local government, it would show all the way up.

Here is hoping!!! I really really really pray that we're all wrong about what a Trump/Pence presidency means for the future (everyone was wrong about him winning). The losing side of every election has a history of over reacting and thinking cataclysmic thoughts the day after the race finally ends. At least THANK GOD it's over LOL

People are definitely being ridiculous assholes on both sides and have been for... well all of time. lol It's like my mom says, we don't have a conservative problem, we don't have a liberal problem, not rich or poor, not from any specific race or creed. It's an asshole problem.

Clinton was absolutely just going to be more of the same bs that people are used to right now. I get why that doesn't work, and I can see how the system is screwed up. The entire political system is a mess, and though you can't say that all politicians are corrupt, there aren't many that you can name that aren't lying, involved in some kind of scandal, or just not doing anything for the people that they represent. I had seen that article before, and that does pretty much sum it up. People are afraid that their way of life is dying, and a lot of that does apply to what said about the service industry. People are losing jobs because things are becoming automated, going overseas or places are just cutting down on staffing to save money, and people are having to take more and more jobs that they think are undesirable, and they hate it. If someone comes along and promises to bring back jobs (one of the ones that he has promised to bring back is coal mining, which was a big freaking deal for West Virginia and Kentucky) people are going to be all for it, because they want a "real" job, they don't want to be working in fast food, especially if they're older than the age they consider acceptable to be in that kind of position. Most people see fast food jobs and other service industry jobs as being there for teenagers, college students and people who want to work part time or a second job for a little extra money, and that goes back to stereotypes about the kinds of roles that people would fill that date back to before all of the jobs like coal miner, farmer and factory worker started to go away.

Just out of curiosity, if you don't mind sharing that is, what made Trump an appealing candidate for you?

Why did you vote for him? Because from where I'm standing, yes, voting for a man whose platform has been a frenzy of fear against the marginalised in society is extremely troublesome. What was he picked for? His political savvy? His years of experience? His ability to coin a lie? The horrendous, regressive Republicans he surrounds himself with? His climate change denial? The false narratives he's built to frame himself the victim?

I just don't get it.

How voters were screwed from the start

Voter: I voted for Trump Voice of the people: How could you vote for a lying racist bigot who is trying to oppress the masses and undermine this country??

Voter: I voted for Hillary Voice of the people: how could you vote for a lying crook who has no regard for national security and is trying to undermine this country??!

Voter: I voted for the Johnson Voice of the people: How could you throw away your vote on a candidate you know will never win when you could have voted for one that mattered???

Voter: I didn't vote Voice of the people: how could you not vote when it's your civic duty as an American citizen to decide the outcome of this election???

No matter what you do there is no right answer. We all lose.

I mean they've showed his 1998 interview over and over and people still voted for him. Well they sure proved him right.

Also, a tiny spark of hope. The Electoral college hasn't actually voted yet (Source: Link)

They're going to; this is just a projection of how the votes will go because of how many states went Red. Nothing says that our State Electors must choose Trump, even if their state went Red. I will cling to this tiny sliver of hope, as I look for ways out of this country.