The USA gets its very own Jacob Zuma

There’s probably going to be a lot of anguish about the election of Donald Trump as president of the USA, and a lot of finger-pointing and blaming from those who think it is a disaster. But his election was a foregone conclusion. It was already decided on 26 July 2016 when the Democratic National Convention chose Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders as their candidate for president.

As usual, The Political Compass nailed it:

Despite most polls indicating that Bernie Sanders would fare significantly better than Clinton against Trump, the party clearly wanted Hillary. This surely suggests that when push comes to shove, the Democratic establishment would prefer Hillary to lose the presidency than Sanders to win it.

In my view by November it had come down to a choice between a loose cannon and a carefully-aimed one: Hillary Clinton had set her sights on the Syrian president, and saw his removal as a priority. Donald Trump seems happy to nuke anyone on the spur of the moment. In either case it would seem likely to lead to World War III, and America has just experienced its Polokwane moment.

Now I’m seeing all sorts of tweets blaming it on bigotry, or saying that it is a victory for bigotry. But I’ve been seeing tweets and Facebook posts from Clinton and Trump supporters for the last nine months or more, and there has been plenty of bigotry from both sides, not to mention vitriol, ad hominem attacks and all-round petty spitefulness.

But the biggest bigotry of all was from the Democratic National Convention — Would Bernie Sanders Have Defeated Donald Trump In The 2016 Presidential Election Instead Of Hillary Clinton?:

Sanders would have bested the business billionaire in a landslide, while Clinton was projected to lose to Trump by at least two percent, according to polls conducted in May. Sanders also won in a major upset against his opponent in Michigan and Wisconsin – two states Clinton may have lost to Trump Tuesday, according to incoming polls on Election night.

There’s the core bigotry that won Trump the election, right there.