How did Trump win the presidency?

[thewrit3r]

It really bothers me that Donald Trump won the presidency. I knew this would be a disaster so I didn't vote for him, but he won, and it's even worse than I thought! I'm so frustrated with the move to repeal the ACA, the way the administration is treating immigrants, women, other minorities, and everything that's happening in the administration. I'm still surprised that some of my friends voted for him and I can't understand why. Moreover when one friend, for example, asked people to stop attacking them for their vote and that it was time for us to come together. Trump spent his entire campaign tearing people apart! I can't do that!
But enough of the rant. How did he win?

[Sam W]

There's not really one, perfect answer to that question. I think that question will be argued until well after my lifetime, with people championing answers that match their worldview. It does look like, from a combination of research and investigative journalism, that a lot of it had to do with racism (white people still angry over Obama), sexism (the twenty odd year smear campaign by the right and a lot of other people against Hilary Clinton), and a lot of people with privilege of one kind or another having swallowed the belief that they're the oppressed group in dire need of saving. Not to mention, the majority of people who voted picked Clinton. She won the popular vote. So part of the blame falls on the electoral college.

[thewrit3r]

Yeah, some people genuinely hate Obama for some reason or another due to political reasons, but I've seen others use thinly disguised racism to hate on him (i.e. questioning where he was born though they never asked another president). And of course the accusations that he was Muslim (though that shouldn't be an issue, but it is because of Islamaphobia and Christian privilege). It just still frustrates me because he won. Every time I hear what happens in the news it's just a mess. But I always take solace in knowing that Hilary Clinton won more of the popular votes. I don't think we should even have the electoral college, to be honest; it doesn't represent the people. But I would say that even if he did win.

[KittyPink]

Yeah, some people genuinely hate Obama for some reason or another due to political reasons, but I've seen others use thinly disguised racism to hate on him (i.e. questioning where he was born though they never asked another president). And of course the accusations that he was Muslim (though that shouldn't be an issue, but it is because of Islamaphobia and Christian privilege). It just still frustrates me because he won. Every time I hear what happens in the news it's just a mess. But I always take solace in knowing that Hilary Clinton won more of the popular votes. I don't think we should even have the electoral college, to be honest; it doesn't represent the people. But I would say that even if he did win.

Not to mention, well, the electoral college is kind of broken. (Registration for it really needs fixing [dual-registering by officials], bribing is a lot easier, in all honesty.) And, also, the electoral college isn't even great, it just plain sucks, by design and purpose.

[Alice O]

To add to all the on-point things everyone said above--we had this interesting moment in the primaries that reminded me of some European politics--there was a left-wing candidate (Bernie), a center-left candidate (Clinton), many center-right candidates, and a far-right candidate (Trump). We ended up in a situation that was a right-wing populist candidate versus a left-wing establishment candidate, at a time when there is serious frustration with the status quo among Americans. I think this played an important role along with the racism, Islamophobia, and sexism that you all have already touched on. And like Sam said: this question will be analyzed and debated about for a long, long time!