The US has turned itself into a cult, electing a leader who based his entire strategy on hate. Well done America, the world is a giant leap closer to an apocalypse. After the most outrageous and unbelievable campaign in living memory the new President has been chosen, and it's Donald J. Trump.
The US has always proclaimed itself as a leader in the free world: the bright light of democracy shining into the darkness, yet as a country America is far from the progressive model it believes of itself. Institutionalised racism, sexism and homophobia have been well-documented throughout America's history, and still continue to this day. Trump epitomises these backwards-facing double-standards and his election is both a moral failure and a reminder that perhaps humanity is as collectively stupid as we often fear.
After spearheading his campaign with attacks on 'Crooked' Hillary, saying she is "the most corrupt person ever" to run for President, Trump immediately praised and thanked Clinton for her work in politics after she conceded, claiming the country owed her a debt of gratitude instead of - as many of his followers expected - calling for her lynching. This was not the first display of Trump's hypocrisy, and will definitely not be the last.
It's not a drastic surprise Trump has won as his campaign followed the same cues as Farage's Leave crusade during the EU Referendum. Both appealed to disgruntled working-class white voters, appropriating the anti-establishment sentiment that is the role of the far-left and weaponising it for the far-right. Both were part of the very problem they claim to have the solution to. Both manipulate facts and, at times, deliver outright lies; although Trump is definitely guilty of this much more than Farage. The difference between the two, however, is clear: Farage understands politics, Trump does not.
When Farage ran for MP at the last General Election he did so in my home constituency of South Thanet. Even though he lost, I saw first-hand the rift created in the community; but Farage is a politician and knows how the system works. Trump is a complete outsider with zero experience, yet he is part of the very crowd he tries to oppose. Even worse, he flat-out denies saying things that he has been proved to have said; rewriting the truth in his own mind so often that even he doesn't know what is real.
The polarisation within my local area - and the UK as a whole - that Farage caused is nothing compared to what Trump has done to the US; the most dangerous part of which was his refusal to accept the result of the election before it had even happened. Will he still say it is rigged, even though he won? My gut says no: if he had lost he would have argued and fought and thrown a tantrum like the giant, small-handed man-child that he has repeatedly shown himself to be; but victorious he will bathe in his own glory, ignorant to the hypocrisy he embodies.
As the Land of the Free the US should be promoting free speech and advocating equality, yet under Trump's stewardship it will be anything but. A man who threatened to sue the women who accused him of sexual assault, throw his opponent in jail, ban free movement and remove constitutional rights for certain minority groups, he is the polar opposite of the trailblazing vindicator of oppression he asserts himself to be. Whilst he may consider himself to be akin to George Washington, he is actually Napoleon from Orwell's Animal Farm. Now he has come to power, in a short time his followers will feel very much like the farmyard animals, with Trump and his entourage the pigs.
"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which." - George Orwell, Animal Farm
Trump has claimed he will start a revolution. He has insinuated and incited hatred and violence and his key demographic has lapped it up, and now he has actual power that is terrifying. The US will soon become just like one of his buildings: plastered with his fart-synonym of a name in giant, narcissistic gold letters, funded by loans offset against debt in a tax-avoidance scam.
At least with Hillary Clinton in power we wouldn't have been spending the next four years listening out for the four-minute warning as the planet is plunged into further turmoil by the US ripping itself apart whilst invading everywhere else and denying climate change; thereby hastening our extinction, along with all other life on the planet.
Since the dawn of mankind we have moved forward; creating more advanced tools, building structures, taming fire, farming, creating infrastructure, developing societies, and advancing our civilisation. At this moment we are more intelligent, more knowledgeable, and more versatile than we have ever been as a species, yet for some inexplicable reason we are still bringing ourselves to the brink of our own destruction. This time humanity has gone too far.