‘They Broke It. America Bought It.’

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/12/nytnow/top-10-comments-they-broke-it-america-bought-it.html

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Here are the top 10 comments of the week on our digital platforms, as selected by our readers and the journalists who moderate nearly every comment.

1. The G.O.P. obstructed progress for eight years and convinced people government is broken. They broke it. America bought it.

— Meghan Y. in Charlotte, N.C.

This comment received more than 1,400 reader recommendations.

2. We elected Trump for one purpose: To deport all illegal aliens, and their illegal families.

If he does that, he will have two terms and be the most popular POTUS in modern history. If he fails....he’s toast. We will vote him out in 2020.

No more anchor babies. No more bilingual education. No more ballots in SPANISH. No more Dream Act. No more sanctuary cities.

— Concerned Citizen.

3. Alas, this has been a pretty typical experiences for our generation of women (born, like Hillary, late 40s/early 50s).

The unprepared, loud braggart gets the job over the thoughtful, well-prepared woman who has studied hard.

— Lynn in New York.

This comment received more than 350 reader recommendations.

4. Welcome to the Brexit club.

Welcome to a radical new world of fear as virtue, ignorance as strength and bigotry run amok.

Please take care if you are a minority, especially a visible minority: I would not be surprised if, as was the case in the months after Brexit (indeed, still occurring), extremists will be emboldened feeling that their prejudices have now received an official stamp of approval.

I wouldn’t say this is a final nail in the coffin, but the Western world has suffered a terrible blow this year and it came from within.

— Joe Collison in London.

This comment received more than 970 reader recommendations.

5. I am proud it looks like most of the country did the right thing and the popular vote has gone to Clinton. And, as much as I wanted Hillary Clinton to win the presidency, I couldn’t shake that nagging feeling that having her in the White House was not going to help mend this country.

The hatred toward her would have bloomed forth unchecked: more obstruction, more mudslinging, more investigations, more vile would have been in store for her. Now, the Republicans will be in the hot seat. Let’s see what they can do before the pendulum swings back — and in the meantime, work to find candidates that will help unite Americans, not divide them.

— Booklover in New York.

6. Hillary supporters aren’t feeling a “sting of defeat”; they’re fearing for their safety.

After Obama won, did you fear that your parents would be forced out of the country and sent far away? Did you experience threatening notes left on your car with drawings of nooses?

Did you question whether you should hold hands with your partner in public, or whether that would now be too dangerous? Were you spat at in public because of your gender, the color of your skin? Were you worried that your access to birth control would be stripped?

Hillary voters are living in very real and very personal fear for their safety.

— Rebecca in Boston.

This comment received more than 200 reader recommendations.

7. My initial reaction to Trump’s victory was like everyone else’s: disbelief, despair, anxiety. I’m starting to see things differently.

When [Trump] announced his large infrastructure plan, it hit me. Infrastructure is what made America great, from the early railroads to Eisenhower’s Interstate highway system. Americans never wanted care or handouts, just a fair shot at working hard and leaving their children a little better off than when they started.

That opportunity has been taken away from rural America, and it’s the older white working folks who remember best it didn’t used to be that way.

His plan is costly and requires deals with Congress that will not pretty, but only a Republican can pull it off and I truly believe there is something there that every American will recognize. Meanwhile, the left will have to transform itself. I’m waiting and seeing, but maybe, just maybe, exciting times are ahead and I would consider moving back to the U.S. to be part of it.

— Fred in Lyon, France.

8. Don’t give newspapers and journals a pass.

“Saturday Night Live” was right to parody the press for their absolute refusal to cover stories other than the email fake scandal. The false equivalencies never ended.

In the future demagogues need to be called out early and often, and women candidates should not be held to a different standard than men.

— SMB in Savannah, Ga.

This comment received more than 980 reader recommendations.

9. He won. Period. These people need to find someone among them willing and able to run for local offices. They need to put this energy to toward supporting that person, and give that person an opportunity to put their goals into action. This protest is a waste of valuable energy.

Channel the energy. Don’t let the energy burn out in protest.

— Brock Roloff on The Times’s Facebook page.

10. I didn’t realize that when Trump said he was going to drain the swamp, what he meant was that he would take all the poisonous reptiles he finds and put them in his Cabinet.

— Helen in New Jersey.

This comment received more than 270 reader recommendations.