Election 2016: What will you remember about this election cycle?

1. The Length. This was the longest campaign I’ve ever witnessed, made all the longer by Trump’s masterful playing of the media ensuring that his picture and pithy one-liners were plastered on the headlines nearly every day. It got the point where, instead of saying to myself, “Let’s see what’s happening in the world”, I found myself thinking, as I typed in bbc.com, let’s see what Trump said today.
2. The rancor. Not only between the candidates. Between the people. The mass of disinformation and propaganda spread not by the political party itself, but by supporters, foreign states, and, most of all ordinary people. Everybody jumped on the propaganda bandwagon in 2016. AS the USA is tipped slowly into the same vat of nationalist totalitarianism the EU is slowly being tipped into, it’s disheartening to see this playing out with the ordinary person gleefully spreading obvious propaganda without restraint, with glee. It’s a game-changing development.
3. The confusion. Nobody knows what is going on. The Democrats attacked Democrats, even after the convention. The post-election blame game is unreal. Let's see who has been blamed so far: Clinton...the media...fake stories on Facebook...white women...Latino voters who didn't vote according to their skin color...Putin...the FBI...   Before the election, the Republicans seemed to be imploding; suddenly the Democrats are imploding. All this stems from one basic fact: policies and positions do not win elections. Personalities (and a stupid electoral system) do.
4. The Eastern Europeanization of American politics. I don’t know how else to say it. The nastiness, the bitterness, the unchecked rudeness and vulgarity, the poor sportsmanship, the anger, the focus on selfishness, the dick jokes, the no-holds-barred sexist comments; and the shock and horror of a people unused to this kind of thing. Something has changed, in a deep and profound way and the name of that change is Trump. His celebrity and oodles of personality (love to hate him, he is definitely personality plus) have forever changed the pace of American politics. Mark my words. Celebrity is powerful.  Clinton’s graceful concession speech might be the last of it’s kind we ever see, as the polarization brought on by a two-party system literally no one thinks works continues down it’s nation-ripping path.
5. Marco Rubio. The first(and probably only) person I’ve ever actually met competing in person. Personally, I wish that the Republicans had gone with Rubio. And if Rubio had had just a smidgen more personality and experience, they probably would have. I think they would have won the popular vote too.

This election was a total game changer and, let’s face it, things are never going to be the same in electoral politics.