A former Huddersfield student now living and working in New York has told of the shock in the United States after the election of Donald Trump as president.
Oxford graduate Joe Cooke, 26, who was brought up in Mirfield and attended Greenhead College, now works as a strategist for NBC News in the Big Apple.
Here, as the result starts to sink in, he tells of what it was like when Republican Mr Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton to become the USA’s 45th president sparking protests on the streets.
“On Wednesday morning, a grey, damp air hung over New York, with a morose silence haunting her usually bustling streets.
“Liberal America stands in a state of shock, shock at its own myopia and its realisation that America has become two-nations ‘between whom there is no discourse and no sympathy.’
“New York had sat at the heart of this election, with two children of this great city, one native son and one adopted daughter, laying out their visions of the future – one born of strength and pitching optimism, the other born of fear and calling for revivalist change. Against all expectations, defying all odds, fear and an unquestionable desire for change have won.
“Trump’s victory was White America’s primal scream, one last grasp for a world that never was. It has revealed the deep divisions in American society and palpable disengagement with the political process.
“Most starkly we can now see the disassociation between the governing elites and the masses, a trend as detectable here in the US, as in the UK following the Brexit decision.
“Unable to understand the momentous decision that the country has taken, a strange shock has descended. All day people stood in silent horror, it being impolite to raise the subject at all.
“As night fell protests erupted in cities across America as that silence turned to anger. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, whether Obamacare will be repealed or America’s foreign commitment thrown into question, but I do know that there will be a tomorrow.
“I do know that if America stands by her values, protects her the constitution and engages with her institutions she can weather the impending storm. The people have spoken. It is now our duty to listen.”
