One hopes. But people did vote for whom he appeared to be. Even if it was an act, that is, to me, a scary thought.

The world is a scary place. Did you not know that? Bullies, liars, and cheaters win. That's the unfortunate truth.

You don't think the checks and balances built into congress and the supreme court basically force him to be a normalish POTUS?

The checks and balances are a republican controlled congress (House and Senate). And a supreme court where republicans will be able to select a majority of the members. The only check and balance left is via a Democratic filibuster.

And maybe I'll get a pony.

And even if that somehow happens, those scenes from his rallies are not going away. The videos of people cheering racist rhetoric, cheering the idea of an entire religion being banned from the country, the idea of not giving a shit that someone confessed to sexual assault, is not going away. If anything, it's going to flourish.

This is what I fear the most. The rise of alt-right rhetoric making it's way into the mainstream. I guess the pendulum had to swing away from talk of global unity and progress and towards isolationism at some point - I just hope it swings back the other way before it's too late.

You do realize when you're talking about "global unity" that almost the whole rest of the world is more racist and sexist than the US, right? I come from a Muslim country. Replace "Muslims" with "Jews" and the worst things said at a Trump rally would be socially acceptable where I am from.

That's a shame, though I doubt you could objectively quantify and compare the sort of racism and sexism here with that of another given nation except at a surface level.

You don't even need an objective measure. It's so deeply ingrained people don't even think about it. For example, Americans will refer to someone from another country by their nationality. "He's Canadian" or "he's German." In Bangladesh, everyone not from Bangladesh is "bideshi"--"foreigner."

And if you're "bideshi" you'll never be "Bangladeshi." A white person can live in Bangladesh their whole life and never be "from there." But at least they generally respect white people. Hang around an immigrant community somewhere like Toronto and get folks talking about black people or Jewish people. Ask a girl's parents about how they would feel about her marrying a black person. You won't get a more negative reaction anywhere in Alabama.

As to the issue of sexism--I don't think it even needs saying.

There are lots of ways to objectively quantify racism and sexism. Just off the top of my head:

- Are women/minorities legally allowed to vote?

- Do women/minorities vote at the same rates as majority men?

- Are women/minorities represented in office at the same rates as majority men?

- Are there any legal restrictions against women/minorities that don't apply to majority men like the right drive, the right to own property, rules around dress or appearance?

- Are women/minorities paid as well for their work as majority men?

- Is abortion legal?

- Do women/minorities have equal access to education as majority men?

- Is interracial marriage legal? How common is it?

- How integrated is housing? Do people of different races tend to live near each other?

I'm sure this list isn't exhaustive. As I said, just a start off the top of my head.