It was almost 10 years ago when the unthinkable happened. Sitting in an American-style diner on a bright November day, I watched as the results came in. State after state had voted for a man most people I knew and the opinion polls thought unelectable. Washed up reality TV star Donald Trump was to become the 45th president of the United States.
Randy, the American who ran the diner in regional NSW, took it better than I did. He was a Democrat and had assumed Hillary Clinton would win. When it was clear she hadn't, he shrugged and said, "Oh well, that's democracy" and accepted the result with grace.
Fast forward and the unthinkable happened again in 2024, when Trump was re-elected, in spite of the chaos he wrought during his first term and the violence he incited after it. History is littered with terrible leaders once thought unelectable.
