Hillary Clinton acts too much like a politician, according to Simple Politics founder Tatton Spiller.
That may well have cost her the election.
As results poured in and Clinton began to trail, the once enthusiastic crowd in The Social’s US election watch party became increasingly subdued.
Eventually the pro-Hillary audience at the Little Portland Street bar did not even have the energy to boo when Donald Trump or Nigel Farage appeared on screen.
Mr Spiller’s take on the election was simple – people don’t want to talk about policy, they vote for a candidate they can relate to.
He said: “People look with a nostalgic eye to the way things used to be even if things never were in fact that way, and they want it back.
“Trump’s strapline ‘Make America great again’, who doesn’t want to live in a country that’s great?”
But Mr Spiller added he did not see a correlation between Trump’s famous slogan and his policy ideas.
He said populist rhetoric like Trump’s offered a vision of a national identity that appeals to some voters.
Listing some of Trump’s most controversial plans – banning Muslims from entering the US, building a wall on the Mexican border and repealing Obamacare, he pointed out how well-known these ideas are.
He said: “It’s almost like we know more of Trump’s policies, when Clinton’s supposed to be this great statesperson.”
He thinks Clinton didn’t talk about policy for fear of turning off voters who dislike politicians.
Kathryn Grant, home affairs director of The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus, a non-partisan organisation that fights pro-gun legislation on university campuses, worries Trump’s victory will mean no way forward for the gun violence prevention movement.
Speaking before Trump’s victory was known, Ms Grant said: “I think people are feeling very very anxious, this election has been unprecedented.”
As the atmosphere at The Social grew more grim, 22-year-old Sam Shaw, of Massachusetts, stared at the large screen while wringing his hands.
He said: “I’ve lost my faith in the American electorate.
“The polls, these people were meant to tell me what was going to happen.
“Obviously something went wrong.”
