So, Trump, the "laughingstock," is on his way here to Europe. Here's my take on what is going on:

[muriel_volestrangler]

63. I think from Europe, it's hard to appreciate what TV coverage of the election was like

Even with all the time I spend on DU, I didn't realise just how little was being said about actual policy, and how much coverage was dominated by idiotic "but her emails..." and similar garbage. It's only when I've seen post-election analyses that I've come to appreciate that.

And that I think is the no "safeguards in place to prevent such an obviously unpopular and unqualified person from ascending to the presidency" problem. European TV is not so ratings-driven, and so political coverage still tries to be serious. It was hard to understand why so many Americans didn't see Trump for the obvious bigoted con-artist that he is, and so didn't get out to vote against him.

One thing the election showed was the powerlessness of print media. Every notable print publication endorsed Hillary, or at worst said "can't recommend, but for God's sake don't vote for Trump". And that seems to have had no effect whatsoever. TV was obsessed with getting headlines, which Trump was good at manipulating; and social media was a mess dominated by the shameless idiots who love Trump and have no problem in being fools and bigoted in public, as long as it drowns out the sane people supporting Hillary.