US election 2016: America’s front-porch revolt

America  : Donald Trump, in his uncharacteristically gracious victory speech, said that “the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer”. Forgotten? They weren’t forgotten. They were dismissed, disregarded, and despised by America’s elites, all of whom got their comeuppance in Trump’s staggering victory.

Nobody saw it coming. I didn’t, and as a conservative who lives in deep red America, I don’t even have the excuse of being a coastal urbanite cut off from the wilds of Trumpistan.

Maybe I didn’t see it coming because I put too much faith in polls. Maybe I didn’t see it coming because I spend too much time reading and listening to the media, and not enough time on my mom’s front porch. And maybe I didn’t see it coming because even though I generally favour Trump’s nationalistic, populist vision, I could not imagine that voters would trust a man as reckless and as volatile as he with the presidency.