In June 2016 Britain shocked itself and the rest of the world by voting to leave the European Union in a referendum. Brexit, a term once used by politics geeks only, entered into common parlance.
‘To Brexit’ is now a verb. It loosely means doing something unconventional, shocking and inappropriate which has huge political, social and economic implications. For instance, Nigel Farage has been brexiting all over the shop for years.
On Tuesday, November 8th 2016, following a contentious, divisive and, at times, utterly farcical election campaign Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, but all the pantsuits in the world failed to secure enough electoral colleges to beat her be-toupeed opponent. And thus, America did a massive Brexit and voted Donald Trump as the successor to Barack Obama.
Since Trump’s win was announced many parallels have been drawn with Brexit. Britain’s vote in the referendum Europe was billed, somewhat sweepingly but not inaccurately, as a rejection of politics-as-usual. A vote for Trump, his anti-establishment rejection of the status quo, jettisoning of political correctness and racist endorsement of xenophobia, sexism and racism is, similarly, being analysed as a mass denunciation of not just politics-as-usual but democracy-as-usual. Similarly, as aspects of the Brexit campaign did, Donald Trump’s campaign was a game changer which endorsed a whole host of bigotries. And, like Vote Leave, Donald Trump has not been apprehended for his particular brand of loud and proud sexism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and race-baiting. He has been given the greatest reward and endorsement.
Like Brexit, Trump's election also came as a shock to many who simply didn't think it was possible that he would beat an experienced politician like Hillary Clinton. Indeed,
(https://www.inverse.com/article/23514-only-millennials-voted-electoral-map-fake-poll)).
Similarly, early national exit polls (from Edison Research) suggest that it was older generations and, largely, white voters who carried Donald Trump over the finish line.
It’s important to point out that it will take time for voter data to be officially collected and analysed but this early exit poll suggests that 55% of 18-29 year olds who took part in a national exit poll voted for Hillary Clinton, while 37% of that age group said that they had voted for Trump. The data suggests that the older the voter the more likely they were to cast their vote for the Republican Party’s candidate while younger people and people of colour were more likely to vote Democrat. There are also interesting education, income and race breakdowns; fewer than 8% of black people polled said they voted for Trump, those who earned $50,000 or more voted Republican in greater numbers while voters on lower incomes went Democrat and, somewhat shockingly, sizeable numbers of white women voted for Trump.
In the 24 hours since the result of the US election was announced and Americans who didn’t vote for him came to terms with the dawn of the Trump era, a backlash has begun with thousands of protestors took to the streets chanting ‘not my President.’
With that in mind it’s also worth pointing out that it appears that a lot of young Democrats didn’t actually get out and vote andaround one in ten of those who did split the vote by casting their ballot for a third party candidate (Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party Nominee Dr Jill Stein).
It’s early days but it seems that Hillary just did not see the same level of youth turnout and support that Barack Obama did, particularly in critical swing states. Many people are questioning whether the more left wing, less mainstream Bernie Sanders would have fared better than Clinton against ‘The Donald’ as pre-election polls suggest he performed better than Hillary in the primaries.
Questions about voter turnout and Hillary's likeability aside, however you slice it and whatever we learn in coming week’s there are some very uncomfortable parallels emerging between this Brexit-esque election and the UK’s controversial decision to Brexit: a generation who were more likely to opt for an alternative are going to have to deal with an outcome which their elders, largely, voted for and, in doing so, brought upon them.
Last week, America wondered whether it was on the cusp of electing its first ever female president in the form of Clinton, former Secretary of State and First Lady.Yesterday, she has conceded defeat to a man who has made up for what he lacks in previous political experience and actual political policies with glib bigotry and anti-women, anti-immigration, anti-disabilities, anti-abortion, anti-disabilities and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
This week American voters rejected the status quo, what comes in its place when President Elect Trump replaces Obama in the Oval Office come January 2017 is anyone’s guess.
If 2016 is anything to go by we’re in for some (potentially unwelcome) surprises.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.