Shortly after the Brexit result came out my friends and I decided to go and drown our sorrows at the nearest bar, however for one of us this was a celebration as he had voted out. When asked upon his reasoning for his vote he replied “because fuck Cameron”. He knew that David Cameron was against Brexit so supported the movement in an effort to torment the establishment. The British public were unsatisfied with Cameron’s leadership and were seeking change: Brexit offered them exactly that. This opened my eyes to anti-establishment voting.

This phenomenon caused a dramatic shift in the global political sector towards the far right, through elections that the general public could not or wished not to foresee. For instance; no one truly believed that Donald Trump, an openly fascist 70-old man with no prior political experience could possibly be elected to lead the most influential country in the world. Yet our disbelief and dismissal worked to his advantage.

We were too busy being outraged by Trump’s every word to concentrate on the real problem in the US’ election: America’s hatred towards Hillary Clinton and what she represented. However successful or accomplished Hillary Clinton became she was always and probably will always be in her husband shadow. Therefore, making it is impossible to imagine a nation governed by her without reminding ourselves of Bill Clinton’s scandalous and corrupted presidency. As idiotic as this may seem, Clinton was too much of a stereotypical politician, her image was tainted by corruption, scandals and cover ups. She did not propose any concrete changes and her political morals changed according to popular opinion. Therefore, presenting her as yet another untrustworthy and power greedy candidate.

Trump was the pole opposite of Clinton whilst she was the personification of an old America he promised novelty and change. Hillary was too much of a politician, well he was not one at all. The American public’s hate towards Hillary Clinton and the outdated establishment that she represented pushed the voters towards Trump, thus winning him the election.

However, the public isn’t totally to blame for these results, but Brexit and Clinton’s lazy campaigning. Both campaigns were naïve and overly confident and completely disregarded their opponents thus facilitating their victory. Perhaps if Remain and Hillary Clinton had fought harder we would be living in a completely different society today.

Sally Galula

(Image courtesy of Newsweek)