Well put.

It's strange how much we used to look up on the US. I'm from Canada so most (nearly all) of our popular culture comes from there and until after 9/11 I honestly didn't think there was much of a cultural difference between Canadians and Americans. Since then the gap has continued to widen with politics down south swinging back and forth like a pendulum between the semblance of stability and a complete shitshow with my own country's political discourse and that of other countries following not far behind.

When I was becoming politically aware for the first time I hated Bush. The first protest I ever went to was Bush showing up in my city despite refusing to acknowledge all the good we did for the US when we took American travelers into our home after they were stranded during 9/11 (Bush snubbed us for a long time because Canada followed the US into Afghanistan but not Iraq).

Anyway, what Trump's victory has taught me:

1) American's political discourse is past the breaking point. There's no point in getting worked up about it anymore as this clusterfuck is reaching terminal velocity and there's nothing we can really do beyond hoping the country sorts its shit out. My sympathy to anyone who feels the same way I do yet is 'trapped' there.

2) America does nothing better. I don't envy anything down there, especially not after travelling through Canada then spending time in the US before heading back to Canada earlier this year. There was a time when the US did so many things better than so many other countries, but having lived in three and travelling to many more, I can't think of a single thing beyond perhaps innovation in certain sectors that makes the US the most appealing to me as a place to live. If you live in Canada, Western Europe, Australia, NZ or Japan, you're probably better off. The only thing the US really has going for it is being a great tourism hotspot.

3) The rest of the world needs to "quarantine" the US and use what's going on there as an example of what not to do. Step 1: Be better than them, Step 2: Double down in certain efforts to compensate for them (climate research), and Step 3: Put protections in place to ensure America's downward spiral doesn't pull other countries down with it.

Simply put:

We're getting a divorce and a restraining order. If you're going to collapse in on yourself, fine, just don't cause WW3 or a climate disaster in the process.

- Sincerely, the rest of the world