The Trump triumph

They would have come out to vote had she appointed Elizabeth Warren as her running mate. Warren espoused the same policies as Sanders. A dual female ticket would have been a glamour team, but Clinton picked a dull white male who had no capacity to help her.

Then, she called Trump supporters DEPLORABLES, as dumb a political comment as I have ever heard. It become a status symbol to declare you had joined the Deplorables.

All the way, the pollsters told her she would win and she believed them, taking her foot off the pedal, even though they had been badly wrong over Brexit (another revolt by the ordinary guys).

Over and above all of this, she was the shining beacon of the Establishment, a governing elite that middle class America despised. Over and over again, Trump declared them to be corrupt and out of touch, which they were. He said he would ‘drain the swamp’ but never ever said what he would do next.

When Hillary lost, many declared it to have been the result of gross misogyny. It was in part, but the inescapable fact is that 53% of white women voted for Trump.

So, what sort of President will Trump be? No one knows. Neither does he.

If he honours his promise to rebuild America’s ailing infrastructure, a necessity that is glaringly long overdue, that will create millions of jobs. Australia should do likewise.

But, if he goes ahead with tax cuts, he will repeat the disastrous error made by Ronald Reagan. His cuts created a lot of wealthy people, but none of that wealth trickled down to the poor and America’s national debt rose astronomically.

We have no option but to wait and see, ever prepared to react sensibly and without panic no matter what happens.

In the meantime, there are lessons for Australia from the Trump Triumph.

Voter backlash here has been growing steadily, as revealed in the return of Hanson and the rise of Xenophon. It will now be energised enormously by Trump having shown them that they can win.

In the 2017 State Elections in WA and Queensland, the major parties will be decimated because they are seemingly oblivious to the obvious danger that assails them. More worryingly, they give the appearance of being incapable of doing anything about it.