It’s not officially over yet, but it looks very much as though Donald Trump has won the US Presidential election and that the Republicans have won the Senate. And with Supreme Court Justices likely to retire, Trump has the chance to reinforce the already iron grip of conservatives on the Supreme Court.
It’s a very bleak morning. This is the result I have feared for a long time but allowed myself to hope that Kamala Harris might just pull off a victory.
In the 3 months since she became the Republican nominee, she has barely put a foot wrong as a candidate. She’s run a positive, optimistic campaign. She did not repeat the mistakes of 2016 when the Democrats withdrew from the key battleground states because they thought they had won.
If there was anything she could have done better, it was land a hopeful economic message. She also didn’t land the blame on Trump and the Republicans for blocking measures which would have improved people’s economic situation like a child tax credit and paid family leave.
She had to contend also with the Middle East situation. That undoubtedly lost her some votes – and probably from both sides.
Anyway, senior Lib Dems have started to process the news. This is what they are saying on social media:
Layla Moran, until recently our foreign affairs spokesperson:
Votes not yet all in but looks like hate is winning. The implications for security across the globe cannot be underestimated. Ukraine. Middle East. China. The UK will need to reevaluate its geopolitical centre of gravity.
Tim Farron:
Oh well!! đșđž đ± First thoughtsâŠ. The UK now needs to do one thing the left/liberals wonât like (establish strong early relationships with the Trump administration) and one thing the right wonât like (scrap all barriers to trade with Europe/increase military co-operation).
Mike Martin:
The UK immediately needs to:
– Increase defence spending rapidly (rather than shrinking its army)
– Focus its military strategy on deterring Russian aggression in Europe (rather than confronting âglobal threatsâ)
– Work with European allies to defend Europe under a NATO that doesnât have US support (rather than assuming that America guarantees European security).
Chris Coughlan:
With the geopolitical shock of a likely Trump win the UK needs to move immediately back closer to our European allies- including reopening the issue of the single market
Freddie Van Mierlo
As the results of the US Presidential election still come in, the U.K. must urgently consider its position in Europe and our security. Slava Ukraini
Vikki Slade
This is just devastating – the world is moving in a scary way & I fear for all those vulnerable groups in USA but across the world.
Why would a country fall for such a con?
Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP
This is devastating.
For America
For women
For asylum seekers
For the LGBTQ+ community
For the fighting men and women of Ukraine
For us all.Iâll never forget or regret my time helping out or the people I met. Just I wish Iâd done more.
Hina Bokhari AM
Iâm utterly shocked. And disappointed. America what have you done?!
However devastated we feel, and how scared we are for the people of the Middle East, we also have to remember that the United States is a very split nation. Almost half of people did not vote for Trump. They will be horrified at the reality they will have to live through. Many of them will be women or LGBT people who will be very anxious about what lies ahead for them. We should look out for them and offer our support as individuals.
Wendy Chamberlain
As I listen to Trump’s victory speech, this is the key issue. It’s clear that repairing the UK’s relationship with Europe is now absolutely critical for our security.
When Kamala Harris speaks next, it’s going to be interesting to see how she pitches her remarks. She will have to concede the result as legitimate but she did also (rightly in my opionion) call Trump a fascist the other day. How does she play that?
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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17 Comments
I generally agree with Tim Farron on most things, but this is not a normal Republican administration, and good relations will only be on that vicious monster’s terms. Starmer and Lammy should do what they should have done from the start, and express solidarity with the millions of Americans who this White House is going to kick around. Anything less is appeasement. Fascists have to be beaten, not snuggled up to.
Don’t you believe in the concept of Democracy Jack ?
It’s attitudes like that, that’s got us here in the first place.
Dismissive of people’s choices, when the status quo has hardly been great, is never a good look.
The Democrats have only themselves to blame. They needed to have a candidate not associated with the government or to have fixed the economy. They did neither. When will the centre left/ Liberals learn that business as usual doesnât work any longer.
Thelma that’s really unfair. I’m not dismissing their choices at all – they have a right to vote as they wish – I’m taking their choice incredibly seriously because it is profoundly concerning. I want us to oppose a government that will be hugely harmful and that frightens millions of people by threatening their fundamental rights. Legitimately opposing bad leaders and standing up for the electoral minority is entirely democratic.
Very disappointing comment by Sir Ed. Regardless of the reality of the character, the man has been democratically elected, seeming also by electoral votes, and we need our political leaders to deal with the reality. Sir Ed needs to be prime miniterial and diplomatic and deal with the world as it is.
There are lessons to be learnt for the UK.
The fact that Trump is unpredictable means that some things will work out OK.
My primary worry is that Trump will succumb to illness or incapacity, leaving Peter Theil in charge of his stooge JDVance and executive operations run by Elon Musk. Now that would be a challenge to democracy.
He’s hideous and appalling. The result is hugely regrettable. But every ‘Deplorables’ comment such as those from our elected reps (above) shows exactly why he got elected and why, unless something changes – that something being that politicians here listen to real people and not just clones of themselves, and really act on their concerns – Reform is going to become more successful over time.
It’s sad to see the denial in so many sentiments here. Perhaps the most fundamental is when Caron says “In the 3 months since she became the Republican [sic] nominee, she has barely put a foot wrong as a candidate.”
Sadly, the damage was done long before then, and it points to a tragic weakness in most progressiveâs approach to politics â when a progressive is in power, and it becomes clear that things are going wrong and support is drifting away, most progressives bury their heads in the sand and do nothing. Most senior Lib Dems (including most here) did nothing between 2010 and 2015 when it was clear for all to see that things were going disastrously wrong in coalition. As things collapsed on all fronts, we had an interminable stream of good news stories and dodgy polls to shore up support for the leader. And we were annihilated.
Likewise in America it was clear that Joe Biden was becoming increasingly confused by mid 2022, but apparently no Democrat (including Kamala) had the courage to quietly but clearly say within the party that things were going wrong and they needed to change. It was only the catastrophe of the debate with Trump that the undeniable truth became clear, but by then it was too late for Kamala to improve her game.
The end was clear when asked âWould you have done something differently?â and the answer came back âThere is not a thing that comes to mind âŠâ
@David Evans
In fairness, near-full employment, low inflation, robust real wage growth, and a booming stock market are generally considered to be enough to warn of a reactionary criminal in most elections in most countries.
The problem was two-fold: weak messaging and underestimating the hostility Americans have to inflation.
The former could be solved by relentlessly sticking to 3 key policies, projecting hopeful vibes, and repeatedly attacking Trump. Most voters don’t have the time to read a chunky manifesto or research issues. They vote on vibes. Edwardian and Victorian Liberals got this with “Big loaf, Little loaf”.
As for the latter, the lessons seem to be that inflation hawkery works electorally speaking. Voters seems to prefer mass unemployment to high single-digit inflation.
For all the talk about the poor state of the US economy, it has actually done quite well in recent years under both Presidents of both political parties.
Google {USA GDP} The graph looks a lot better than for any European country.
And yet there is a huge amount of economic discontent. How is this possible when GDP per person works out at about $87,000 per person p.a?
It can only be because of the way this is shared out inequitably.
@Peter Martin: absolutely right, Peter. The poorer off in the US have not benefitted from the country’s significant increase in wealth of the last few decades.
@Peter Martin: right about inequality and the same may apply in the UK with people moving towards Reform UK thinking that less tax and fewer immigrants will make them better off.
@Peter Martin – and the sad fact is that, under Trump, this inequity will only get worse, just as it would under Farage. Unfortunately, the US people are the sheep voting for the wolf who convinced them he was ‘one of us’.
Chris, Nigel and Keith,
We all seem to agree. It’s not often I write this! đ
Except, I might add that the argument it will get worse even faster under Farage, Le Pen, Trump, Badenoch, or whoever, whilst true, probably won’t cut it. They, and the brand of politics they represent, aren’t responsible for the current high levels of inequality because, with the exception of the previous Trump presidency, they haven’t previously been in charge of anything.
They are, though, promising something different to what we’ve previously been used to. That’s enough to give the far right their recent electoral success. Kamala Harris was promising more of the same with just a few minor reforms.
It wasn’t enough. It probably won’t be enough this side of the Atlantic when the Starmer/Reeves government hits the skids. If they haven’t done so already!
Yes, Trump was democratically elected. So was a certain German-Austrian moustached monorchid. So was Putin (in the sense that his original election was reasonably free and fair). Democratic choices have consequences, and when it’s from a world power the consequences are far-reaching. So it is entirely right and proper to point out the likely consequences of a the choices made by an electorate, even if it is not our electorate.
As for Ed needing to be “prime miniterial and diplomatic”, here’s a newsflash: Ed is not Prime Minister, he’s not even Prime Minister in waiting. As leader of the 3rd political party in Parliament, he has no position on the diplomatic stage. He has no need and no reason to be either prime ministerial or diplomatic. Most Lib Dem voters and potential voters would never have voted for Trump or anyone like him. Reading from the same diplomatic script as Starmer would serve no purpose and make it look like we supported Trump.
Hardly anyone on this, & the other threads has mentioned the loss of control from the Biden adminstration of the Southern border, which had consequences far beyond it’s locality .
Huge numbers of voters in the US / EU / UK want far stricter controls on immigration. Until the progressive left understands that, and acts accordingly, no amount of ‘listening to concerns’ will cut it .
Pandering to anti-immigrant sentiment, or any other far-right narrative, will not win the progressive tendency any votes. People inclined to vote for populism will invariably vote for the real deal, not pale imitations. What it would do is amplify the far-right message and thus strengthen populists. There are ways of taking out the far right (in a democratic sense), but imitating it isn’t one of them. See how the Lib Dems took out the BNP in Burnley in the 2000s.