LETTER FROM WASHINGTON
SIMON BARBER: Mountebank ushers in era of uncertainty
In the name of wanting its country back, a rancorous popular minority has handed the highest US office to a man manifestly unfit for the position, writes Simon Barber
So the mountebank won. The electoral college system, designed to protect slave owners, did not redeem itself by protecting Hillary Clinton as almost everyone thought it would. Instead, it did as the founding fathers intended. It amplified reaction and the whitelash to eight years of President Barack Obama. Now what? The honest answer is nobody knows, not even the president-elect, Donald Trump. We are in uncharted territory here. In the name of wanting its country back, a rancorous popular minority has handed the highest office in the land to a man manifestly unfit for the position. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance are said to be the five stages of grief upon bereavement. One is supposed to follow the other. Among those who thought it unthinkable, Trump’s election is inspiring much the same responses, but simultaneously and spiced with a dash of raw fear. Will Trump take advice? Having steered to victory seemingly by no compass but his own, will he let others guid...
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