10 reasons to feel cheerful if your world has just gone mad

1. For the majority of his life, Donald Trump was a Democrat. He has never been part of America’s right. He also likes to be liked. There are scenarios in which he ends up being more liberal than his rhetoric suggests.

2. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, which means that America can still claim to be a largely rational nation.

3. It might well be a one term presidency. Nothing suggests that Trump will be a good fit for the lifestyle of a President and we can be sure that, in four years, the Democrats will field a strong candidate.

4. Republicans are now entirely in charge. No more battles between the White House and the Hill. It means that the country will quickly get to decide if they like Republican government.

5. It’s the end of the Clinton dream. Democrats can now get back to the serious job of picking a proper candidate without a deeply divisive back story who doesn’t alienate huge segments of the electorate.

6. It’s going to be a great time for America’s arts, as people have four years with an object worthy of their skills and scorn.

7. This might finally remind the many people who didn’t vote or who made a protest vote that these things can actually happen. The failure of the black vote to turn out in favour of Hillary is one of the key points of the night.

8. The media might look at themselves and reassess what they do. They allowed Trump to walk to the White House without once facing proper media scrutiny. At the beginning they treated him as a joke when they should have been treating him seriously.

9. Trump will continue to destroy the Republican Party, only from within rather than from outside. The Republicans now wake up to a President they dislike and who dislikes them. That’s an interesting dynamic.

10. Trump’s biggest promise was that he would build a wall. He won’t. That simple fact alone will haunt American politics into the future. Post-Trump America might have to come up with proper plans for border security and immigration. It might also destroy the myth that outsiders can fix the system.