Election night, six months later

[Deblano]

Three or so days before the election, I got very, very scared that Trump would win. So scared that on the Sunday before the election, I couldn't sleep. I remember sharing these feelings to a friend of mine, who reminded me that "This is the same country that elected Barack Obama twice. Trump's screwed." By the time Nov. 8 rolled around, though, that had passed and I was exuberant imaging a smashing victory that would send Trump back to his gilded tower with his tail between his legs, end Mike Pence's political career and have the deplorables weeping into their MAGA hats.

It was the worst night of my life, and for several hours I contemplated suicide.

I say this for your own good: Please stop paying attention to politics. Do you not understand the value of life? Do you really think Trump's victory has made life that much worse for many people?

To those of you reading this besides the person I quoted, most of you see a problem with this. Our media has brainwashed our nation. That anyone could contemplate suicide because The Other Party Won is awful. To those ideological, demagogical, horrible, horrible news networks I say: you have so demonized your opponents that when you lose your supporters contemplate suicide. In the name of humanity, I beg you to stop. You have shot no bodies with bullets. You have proven the pen mightier than the sword, words stronger than any punch. You don't shoot bodies with bullets - you brainwash minds. Let us suppose MAINEiac is the only one who contemplated suicide. Would you not even stop for one human life? I know the powers that be, the media I rant to in my mind will never read this, but it can be said that I did not speak out. Soon, that will change. Soon, your hate will be exposed.

This is the result of a society that blatantly disenfranchises and polarizes its voters.

You get a population that is hopeless and resorts to political violence or self-harm to get its voice heard when the ballot box wont work. We NEED electoral reform NOW if the American experiment is to survive.

[Deblano]

I always believed that this election was a tossup despite what the polls said, and I was not ENTIRELY surprised when Trump pulled a surprise upset.

However, I considered skipping class the day after election day, because I was expecting horrific rioting and civil unrest, especially since I was living on a college campus.

However, the earth continued to keep turning, and the Wednesday was as peaceful as any other day. I've taken this as a lesson not to let myself have such low faith in my countrymen even when our homeland is in tough times.

[Deblano]

For note I do not think this election ended well but it was no 1980 for Democrats. The winning party lost the popular vote and is in possession of a fragile coalition that isn't united and constantly wars. This may actually disturb both the left and right because if an actual crisis hits the GOP coalition and Trump are not politically equipped to handle it well. 

I think basically everyone really lost out in 2016. The GOP didn't fix their problems and inherited the nation's problems and a undisciplined rookie president while the Democrats flat out lost. Trump is so undisciplined that his legacy is at risk and I don't see him learning fast enough on the job. Meanwhile of course the Democrats are shut out of power. The Congressional Republicans are saddled with Trump.

The long run suggests the Democrats may be the beneficiaries. They don't have to deal with the problems facing the country and they can oppose freely. They also now have the freedom to retool their ideology.

The biggest loser in the election was stability and the ability to govern the nation by anyone. But in my cynical view… that was coming anyway.

So yeah 2016 wasn't great. But had Hillary won it would've been only marginally better.

Agreed. For the Democrats, I feel like it was a "pick your poison" moment

[Deblano]

It was right around 9pm when Chuck Todd took a look at Florida and saw Trump ahead by >140K votes.  You could feel and see NBC's panel deflate at that moment and the rest is all she wrote.

I did think Trump would take FL though. However, I didn't think he had a prayer anywhere in the Democratic upper midwest.

I expected a Trump win to look something like this.

I wasn't surprised that he won Pennsylvania, but I was surprised that he won Wisconsin and Michigan.