Love him or hate him, and as polarising & sociopathically egotistical as he certainly is, Donald Trump simply beat all expectations & rode the wave of "anti establishment resentment" skilfully & to his full advantage.
The Democrats, in choosing the much disliked Hillary Clinton, were counting on an "establishment" Republican opponent….not Donald Trump!
And as it turns out in hindsight, their own anti establishment candidate Bernie Sanders would have probably beaten Trump.
But one thing is now clear following Brexit & now Trump's ascendancy, the political classes in most western democracies are fast losing their appeal to voters, and the rise of "anti establishment" politicians is going to continue for a while.
The worrying thing for major political parties is this: The anti establishment politics are entering from all political angles………not just the conservative right………just look at Nick Xenophon' & his NXT success in Australia.
In terms of international diplomacy & trade however, Donald Trump must quickly equip himself with some newly found skills or he will be eaten alive by more wily opponents who clearly know & understand international relationships are about pragmatic negotiations & not autocratic " Apprentice style Hire/Fire" !
All we can hope for now is that Trump's populist demagogic promises were more rhetorical than anything else & were simply made to highlight the utter failure of the political elite to comprehend & address the deep seated resentment of many voters who feel disenfranchised & in fact (rightly or wrongly) impoverished as a result of globalisation.
On the positive side, we no longer need to suffer Reality TV on our screens as the American politics will be the most exciting Reality Show of all time for the next four years!
