2016-11-11

Not about Skype, but yes about numbers

I have always been a number cruncher. This is not related to Skype ...

I saw with apprehension the victory of Donald Trump.

I am therefore surprised that – to my knowledge – few people commented on « numbers » including the « other candidates ». Indeed, there were some other presidential candidates. Who is really aware of this in the rest of the World (I mean outside the USA)?

Of course, Trump won in a democratic election with rules, strange rules perhaps, but rules: 290 to 228 electors of the Electoral College. A very significant victory of Democracy. We (the US people and the rest of the world) should respect this.

On the other hand Clinton got 47,7% of votes, and Trump « only » 47.4% . Yes, many people are aware of this.

But, I noticed another trend! The other candidates got the following percentages of votes (source BBC):
2004: 1.0 %
2008: 1.4 %
2012: 1.6 %
2016: 4.9 %

In 2016 about three times more people than in 2012 voted for « other » candidates, and compared to 2004 this is 5 times more! In my opinion, and this is a personal opinion, traditional or professional politicians lost against outsiders. Clinton lost against Trump PLUS the others. There is a shift of more than 3% to « outsiders ».

Again, in my opinion, a lot of people are so angry with traditional politicians that they voted for Trump AND others, against professional politicians.


Traditional politicians against new politicians: 47.7% against 52.3%. Democracy won.

I am a Belgian citizen, a very small democratic country in this world. I tell you, that I already hesitated to vote for one of the « less political correct parties » just to protest against our stone age self protecting traditional parties. I am also angry, and not on Trump ...