but also know that the fears of the rest of the Board do have some basis in fact. Neither of us would have voted for Trump in the primaries, and correct me if I misspeak, but I believe that we both must admit that our main source of relief is not that Trump won, but that Clinton lost.

It is not basically slander, accusing someone of a crime is under US Law Defamation Per-Se. Usually that means they would not even need to prove damages to win on that. Now as Secretary Clinton is a public figure, such comments would need to have been made with actual malice, which is an incredibly high standard to meet. But as this is a board posting it would actually be libel not slander. But other than they name the two forms of defamation are the same.

And I agree seriously, it seems America forgot that whole innocent until proven guilty with regards to Secretary Clinton. For her it apparently has been guilty until proven innocent beyond all doubt.

You say, " I don't really want to think that we're not upholding the values we claim to share."

You want to know what I have to say to that?

Good.

Don't.

Don't you for a moment think that because Trump won, bigotry also won. To slightly alter a line from a YouTube video I saw today, while all the bigots voted for Trump, not everyone who voted for Trump is a bigot. (Case in point, yours truly: black, Haitian, PPC Boarder).

We were faced with a horribly flawed choice. Were any other Democrat facing Trump, his multiple gaffes would have ended the election then and there. And were any other Republican facing off against Hillary, the e-mail scandals may well have been her death knell.

And let's not be deceived: both candidates were flawed. The media has highlighted Trump's faults, but let's not pretend that Hillary is blameless. She is clearly corrupt, believing herself above the law. Bill Clinton talks to the head of the Justice Department, and surprise, surprise, even though FBI Director Comey spells out that Hillary was "extremely reckless" with classified information (translated into legalese: "gross negligence"), the Justice Department declines to prosecute.

More personally for me, the "humanitarian" Clinton Foundation misappropriated funds meant to go towards rebuilding Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, but since the mainstream news media has a left-leaning bias, no one hears a thing unless they actually do some digging.

And need I say "Benghazi"? While our diplomats get killed in a terrorist attack, Hillary and Obama are already looking towards some pastor in Florida as a scapegoat. (Let's completely ignore the fact that the attacks came on the anniversary of one of the worst disasters to occur on American soil. Ignore the man behind the curtain! Look at this Floridian jester instead!)

And I could go on.

Hillary becoming President would have just been the capstone of a long-time grasp for power and impunity.

Personally, I wanted someone sane to be the Republican nominee. I can only pray that Congress can curb his worst instincts. No president rules alone.

However, if faced with the choice between two evils, better the one who'd clearly state that he wants to kill me than the one who'd hug me only to get a good angle to plunge a knife in my back. Trump isn't ideal. No one can deny that. But though I may be in the minority here on the Board, at least let it be said that I made a cogent argument for honestly believing that Hillary would have been worse.

Yes, Donald Trump will probably be a bad president. Yes, him being elected despite losing the popular vote sucks. Yes, progress, whatever that word means to you, may stall. But it doesn't have to move backwards.

The U.S. government is not a monolith. It can, has been, and will again be, bowed by the public. Even the Republican majority government can be overcome. Nothing is certain, anything can change. Personally, I have resolved to wait and see, and I don't think it's too unreasonable an idea for most of us to do the same.

Meanwhile, please don't write off the people who voted for Trump. Some of his voters were undoubtedly jerks, but definitely not all, and certainly not enough to bring him within spitting distance of the popular vote. There were real, rational reasons to vote for him, and there were real, rational reasons to vote against Hillary. And those who voted for third party candidates had legitimate reasons to dislike both candidates, on policy and character grounds.
Everyone picked the candidate they thought best, and if you dismiss that idea you'll never understand why they held the beliefs they did, or how to change them.

There are two rather insightful quotes by John Green I feel are useful here; "truth resists simplicity," and, "imagine others complexly."
The world isn't black and white, the political divide isn't right and wrong, and the choice this election was not, to most, good or bad.

And who knows, Trump might just surprise us. I don't think he will, but none of us can see the future. Maybe a few good things will come out of his term. Personally I'm hopng this whole debacle will give some momentum to election reform.

-Badger, who dreams of a world where First Past the Post voting and the Electoral College have gone the way of the dodo.

1: Montenegrin Neo-Ambrosian Republic
Comprising Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, southern Croatia (with the new border extending from Buhaca to Senj), northwestern Bulgaria (including Sofia), the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and northern Albania, the MoNARchy, as it is commonly nicknamed outside its borders, is a powerful nation held together by energy exports from its fusion plants and ruled by the Captaincy-Defenderate from the Capital-University at Cetinje. MoNAR is causing something of a brain drain in neighbouring states, as its attitude is "more scientists = more Scary Death Widgets that make the Gomos think twice before killing us and taking our stuff". Notably absent from its borders, however, is...

#2: Kosovar Khaganate
... the Kosovar Khaganate, a brutal military dictatorship in the Spartan mould which nevertheless has managed to retain its independence as an enclave of the MoNARchy, largely due to outside support from other juntas like the Unamiguously Separate Sevastopol Republic, the Tex-Mex Republic, and...

#3: The Fourth Rome
... The Fourth Rome, with its mighty capital Palatinograd (formerly St. Petersburg) fuelling a grinding war of attrition with the Gomos and fighting proxy wars against them in their interests around the world. There are other glittering cities, too - Quirinograd (Tallinn) and Caeliograd (Helsinki) on the coast, the arctic ice palaces of Esquilinograd (Tromso) - but by the decree of the Emperor Franz Karl II, none may rival Palatinograd's splendour.

You know Trump has appointed a climate change denialist to the EPA? We've already failed to meet our goals in that regard - temperature rise now seems irreversible - but Trump is accelerating it. That's a literal end-of-the-world scenario - not just the "OMG he's gunna take mah guns" nonsense you've had to live with while Obama's been President.

Also: felon? There's this little principle about innocent until proven guilty in US law. Hillary Clinton has not been found guilty of a felony; hence, she's not a felon. Calling her one basically amounts to slander. You can dislike her all you want, but if you're going to repeat lies, you're going to lose the respect of a lot of people (such as me).

Maybe one day the USA will get a modern democratic system - then we won't have Republicans losing the popular vote but getting the White House anyway.

Hopefully, though, Trump might be able to push through Congressional term limits. If he does that, his Presidency might not be a total loss.

Lastly: kindly do not pray for me. If you want to do something for me, use your voice to stop Trump undoing everything the world's been working towards. Thank you.

(i'm dying of heat down here please stop the warming)

Because ewwww trans.

*scowls*

I'm seriously considering going back into the closet in real life because I don't want to deal with the prejudice that's already springing out from the carpet under which we swept it.

. . . and it's fifteen pages in length. There are references to the Supernatural and Doctor Who continua, but those are fairly common PPC knowledge.

Forgive me if I don't share your relief.

Eh, kinda what I expected.

If anyone's curious, I'm relieved because my country's leader is going to be someone I find personally unpleasant, rather than a conniving felon who lies on instinct. Compared to her, I'm relieved to have Trump as president; that tells you just about all you need to know about my views on Hillary.

Personally, if there had been an option to vote for a paper mache bust of Calvin Coolidge, I would have gone with that. He'd have more substance and be sturdier on all issues than the other two combined. And his voice wouldn't be so annoying. And we'd have Coolidge back in office. I just really like Calvin Coolidge okay

To sum up, I don't like either of them, but I dislike Hillary more than I dislike Trump. Anyway, that's Le Far-Far-Far-Far-Far-Far-Far Right (in relation to the rest of the PPC) Alleb's take on things.

-Alleb, who knows all of you can get through this, as she survived eight years of Obama. Also, she's praying for you and hopes your worst fears are proved false

And I am not happy for many reasons. Chief among them would have to be that, in all likelihood, I could very well lose my health insurance next year once the Republicans axe the ACA. I will almost certainly lose the tax credit I receive on it, which would make insurance a rather onerous financial burden. My father is also at risk. Given that he suffers from diabetes and depression (the latter of which I also struggle with), it will be especially hard on him.

I am also not happy at finding out how many of my fellow citizens are either bigots, or willing to tolerate bigots just to get their own way. I had a smidgen of hope that people might overcome their more base natures to do the right thing. I was wrong. So I suppose I should be a bit grateful in that the election has reaffirmed my choice of Internet pseudonym.

The list goes on. I am not happy that national attempts to curb climate change will be abandoned. I am not happy that federal protections for the LGBTQ+ community will likewise be discarded. I am not happy that a theocratic nutjob is a heartbeat away from the Presidency. I am not happy that every bully, every white nationalist, every neo-nazi, and every proto-facist has been given even a bit of validation.

In short, it's not been a fun day in my head.

But I will not allow myself to give in to despair. As Scapegrace said elsewhere in this thread, "This fight is over. The fightback begins now."

Have another scary thing.

I guess the best we can do now is try to make our feelings known during the midterm elections in 2018. For now, though, I hope Trump is merely an incompetent buffoon, and not the reason we have a World War 3.

I wrote that message at like 4 in the morning, during my initial bout of anger and sleeplessness. Looking at what everyone else has said, I've come to realize that as bad as this situation is, there is still hope for recovery in the future. And of COURSE I regret my earlier post, for all sorts of reasons.

I was shortsighted and irrational last night, and for that I will have no further say on this for both my sake and that of everyone else. I just hope we all can learn from this and, you know, don't make an even worse mistake.

*examines* ooh, 1911. *loads* mm hmm, one in the chamber...

see uh... the firing pin is filed down, alright? Mag full of dummy rounds, if I pull the trigger nothing happens - *BANG*

What?
*hands still buzzing, sniffs ejector with beak*

Oh my gaaa.... y'all mother...ers must be crazy.

*proceeds to doubletap paper targets downrange*

Nice to have you with us.

Seems like we won't get nuclear fallout immediately after all. Just don't panic.

I read an interesting Cracked article on the subject a little while back, provocatively titled "How Half of America Lost its F**king Mind." Phobos was quick to poke holes in its arguments, but I still think it's worth thinking about. For reasons right or wrong, people feel incredibly threatened, and that just sucks. What can we do to make it better so this doesn't happen ever again?

~Neshomeh

The bad news is, Trump won. The good news is, I have a day off school to mourn.

I'm gonna need it. Six week recovery is gonna be rough.