LogFAQs > #931142885

Biggest Moment/Event of the 2010s: Donald Trump wins the 2016 presidential election
Runners Up: Brexit vote results, Death of Osama bin Laden, Tohuku earthquake/Fukushima nuclear disaster, Obergefell v. Hodges decision

Every decade has at least one moment that everyone will remember exactly where they were when it happened. Some are tragic events like 9/11 in the 2000s, some are triumphs like the moon landing in the 1960s, while others are moments that just feel like a culture-defining culmination--like the OJ Simpson verdict in the 1990s. The election of President Trump is basically all three of those things wrapped into one.

I can't think of anything else that happened this decade that really comes close to that universal "holy shit" moment when we realized that Trump was going to defeat Hillary. We had months and months of completely insane campaign moments, times when his candidacy felt dead and buried and Hillary was going to make herstory. Everyone in the media told us it was a foregone conclusion. Every Hillary supporter was smugly coming to work that day wearing "my president is a GIRL" shirts, high-fiving each other and thanking the heavens that the GOP voters nominated the most uncouth presidential candidate of all time.

I remember having the news playing at home in the background that night. I was so angry from the primary that I didn't care what happened; and like everyone except for red sox and ulti, I just assumed that Hillary was going to win. All that mattered was holding the senate. I had CNN on because the FoxNews app wasn't streaming to chromecast correctly. And I am glad I did. Because the results came rolling in, and the media started to have a collective meltdown.

Florida and North Carolina went to Trump. Okay, I thought. I guess it'll be closer, but those are really just red states that Obama carried unexpectedly. Then Ohio results came in and Trump was up by like ten points. Holy fuck, if things stay like this... he might actually have a chance. Then Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were all trending red, and everyone started to realize it was over. We were living through the single greatest political upset in the history of the United States.

I still remember my subway ride to work the next day. I live in a particularly liberal part of Brooklyn, and you would have thought someone nuked the city. Half the people must have called in sick. Those who went in were dead silent, shell-shocked as they hung their heads and moved on with their lives knowing that Donald Trump was the President Elect.

There were countless post mortems following this day, but it can't be understated how momentous that election was. That is not to say President Trump is transforming the nation or that he'll have a policy impact to the scale of FDR or Lincoln. The change isn't in the result itself, but how we perceive politics and how we perceive the media. His election was a stark reminder that the Internet and social media are not indicative of the feelings of the nation. It was a reminder that the media is and has always been more about their own perception than a reflection of reality. And it was a turning point in American discourse and politics--that a man who campaigned on being an outsider draining the swamp is actually what the people wanted. And we're still dealing with those repercussions today.

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"A more mature answer than I expected."~ Jakyl25
"Sephy's point is right."~ Inviso