David Remnick, writing in the New Yorker, is not happy with the Trump victory.
The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy. new yorker
He goes on at length as to the odiousness of Trump.
a President whose disdain for women and minorities, civil liberties and scientific fact, to say nothing of simple decency, has been repeatedly demonstrated. Trump is vulgarity unbounded, a knowledge-free national leader who will not only set markets tumbling but will strike fear into the hearts of the vulnerable, the weak, and, above all, the many varieties of Other whom he has so deeply insulted. new yorker
Remnick is a pretty good proxy for the now completely discredited liberal commentariat and the MSM whose repudiation was so thoroughly trashed by the deplorables last night.
The good and decent people of America – people like us, people who went to a decent college and who accept their fair share of the burden of white people’s guilt – are in very deep despair today. Their bubble has burst. A few days ago I wrote:
Hillary supporters faced with a big loss will, I suspect, resemble the losers in Brexit who were in shock that a bunch of provincial yahoos could somehow destroy the metropolitan consensus. Supporting Hillary is regarded as something of an IQ test by her supporters. It’s pass/fail and if you fail you are obviously not the sort of person a Hillary supporter would want as a friend. november 3, 2016
Writing in The Spectator, Brendan O’Neill provides the provisional answer and analysis to the Remnick wail:
This response to Trump’s victory reveals why Trump was victorious. Because those who do politics these days — the political establishment, the media, the academy, the celeb set — are so contemptuous of ordinary people, so hateful of the herd, so convinced that the mass of society cannot be trusted to make political decisions, and now those ordinary people have given their response to such top-down sneering and prejudice.
Oh, the irony of observers denouncing Middle America as a seething hotbed of hatred even as they hatefully libel it a dumb and ugly mob. Having turned America’s ‘left behind’ into the butt of every clever East Coast joke, and the target of every handwringing newspaper article about America’s dark heart and its strange, Bible-toting inhabitants, the political and cultural establishment can’t now be surprised that so many of those people have turned around and said… well, it begins with F and ends with U. the spectator
Trump has been handed a mandate to tear down the liberal follies of the last eight years. There are swamps to be drained and idiocies like “global warming” and Common Core to be dismantled. There is also the opportunity, if Trump is smart enough to take it, to build out from his band of Deplorables.
The people who are hurt most by disasters like unchecked immigration, Common Core or Obamacare or money sinks like “Global Warming” are not confined to the white demographics in rust belt and southern states. The fact is that there are plenty of poor, unemployed people in blue states. There are ill-educated black kids in crappy houses in awful neighbourhoods who need actual help. There are lots of able bodied men, black, white, Latino who have not had a decent job in three or four or more years. There are young people with mountains of student debt and degrees in gender studies who, while it is fun to make fun of them, actually need an economy which is rapidly growing so they can reskill and lead a life beyond the coffee bar.
Trump has the opportunity to make good on his promise to remember the forgotten people in the American nation. To do that he needs great people. He needs to build a consensus around a new vision for America.
Most of all, Trump needs to competently destroy the self-satisfied leftie claim that only the left enjoys the signal virtue of compassion. If Trump begins with his useful question to black Americans, “What the Hell do you have to lose?” and answers it with real progress on jobs and education, the Remnicks of the world will be silenced.
Satisfying as it was to see the Deplorables deliver the biggest FU in political history to the self-appointed American ruling class, it is now up to Trump to convert that anger into progress. I don’t know if he can; but I do know that it will not be “business as usual” under President Trump and that is a step in the right direction.
Update: A good analysis of how the media lost touch from Michael Wolff.
Jay Currie 
Good speech by Trump, probably what was expected. The progressive left is doing what they always do when they lose, cry, moan, bitch, light fires, riot, and threaten to assassinate the President elect. Funny how so many people who oppose guns suddenly want someone to use one to end someone else’s life.
Watched 5 min of CNN last night and saw how pathetic they were trying to find a path to victory for Clinton when it was over. The NYT, at 3 AM EST still would not call it, as if somehow they would find new votes somewhere that would erase what was happening. CNN called it, finally, after Clinton called and conceded. She didn’t have the grace to go and address her own crowd, who stayed and stuck through thick and thin.
Obama’s legacy will be reversed in short order, since he did so much by executive order that is still being reviewed by the courts. The Affordable Care Act isn’t. It deserves to be repealed quickly so maybe businesses can get back to business. And I am sure many Americans are hoping that Trump keeps his word and starts working on deporting ILLEGAL ALIENS… yes, illegals. And cutting funding to absurd “sanctuary cities” who flout federal law. Vetting legal immigration to attempt to ensure the safety of their own country, all those things that are common sense to normal people but racist to the “progressive” left. But not only should he work on deporting illegals but he should ensure that businesses that take advantage of illegal workers are investigated and fined to discourage the hiring of illegals. I know, the old saw is that someone has to do the work will be thrown out there, but there are a lot of unemployed out there who could do it, if they got off their butts. Perhaps a review of their social programs are in order?
Funding and continuation of the 2006 Secure Fence Act might actually happen, much to the consternation of ignorant lefties who didn’t realize they already had a federal act covering the building of a wall. And border agents may get some support for doing a thankless job of trying to prevent people from illegally entering their country.
Yup, Trump has a lot of work ahead, but if he surrounds himself with competent people the USA should be fine. I mean, it survived 8 years of Obama, more or less.
[…] Jay Currie linked to this explanation from Michael Wolff of how the mainstream media lost touch with reality in this election campaign: […]