One can only wonder how those who voted for Donald Trump felt when they saw him lobbing rolls of paper towels at hurricane victims in Puerto Rico.
Even for somebody with no leadership skills, surely there would be some sensitivity and compassion in a US president and how he treated people left distraught and in desperate need of relief aid.
Trump thinks he is really smart and that people are thrilled with everything he does.
In reality he is an oaf with no sense of decency.
If there were no risk of being assaulted by the Secret Service, the Puerto Ricans would probably have thrown the paper towels, and perhaps their shoes, back at him.
Trump has removed all sense of prestige from the US presidency.
He is like a badly behaved pet in the White House, piddling on the Oval Office carpet, barking incessantly and chewing up valuable artefacts.But as we approach a year since his election, it should be remembered that many people voted for him because he was not a career politician, and undertook to overthrow the Washington establishment.
The bulk of Trump's support base was white working-class people who felt neglected and disenchanted.
But not all of those who voted for Trump were conservatives, racists, sexists and xenophobes who were rebelling against the political system that allowed a black man to hold power for eight years, or hillbillies who thought women should toss burgers and fetch your beer, not lead nations.
There were some people who were simply turned off by Hillary Clinton and the political dynasty she represented.
Now that the US has turned into a parody, proposed changes to healthcare are a fiasco, a war with North Korea seems possible and collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians indisputable, there must be regret among those who bought his deceptive election promises.
South Africa has its own case of buyer's remorse when it comes to Jacob Zuma and the ANC.
For generations of people, the ANC was the only political party they knew and trusted. Despite disappointments over the years, diehards remained loyal and believed it to be a betrayal of the liberation struggle to even consider voting for another political party.
The Zuma administration has changed that perspective for large numbers of people, including ANC stalwarts who had dedicated their lives to the party.The 2014 and 2016 election results reflected that some ANC supporters either changed their votes or stayed home in apathy.
There is now a significant portion of the ANC that is on the periphery of the party or outside it altogether.
Aside from the current bun fight over the leadership, the ANC seems unable to contend with the prospect of a loss of power because of the rot and failures of the Zuma administration.
Even if the ANC is able to stabilise after its December elective conference, it will be difficult to rebuild trust after so much damage to its image and reputation.
The 2019 elections might be impacted by another factor.
Voting patterns in other parts of the world show that disaffection in society is prompting people to search for alternatives.
While the US presidential election was the best example of voters colouring outside the lines of traditional politics, there was a similar phenomenon in parts of Europe. In some cases this search for an alternative was manifested in the rise of right-wing parties.
In Germany, however, analysts are cautioning that not all those who voted for the hard right Alternative for Germany are themselves racists or neo-Nazis. They say some people are tired of the uniformity of German politics or, as in the US, feel abandoned by the establishment.
In France, voters opted for a fresh face in politics in the form of Emmanuel Macron and thankfully rejected the far-right candidate Marine le Pen.
The last election in Nigeria also resulted in a shake-up. Discontent over security, corruption and the state of the economy led to Nigerians electing Muhammadu Buhari, the first opposition candidate to defeat a sitting president in an election in Africa's most populous nation.
If South Africa follows the trend, voters may seek new options in 2019. This may not necessarily mean that they will opt for established opposition parties as alternatives to the ANC.In the 2009 and 2014 elections, large numbers of voters opted for the rookies.
The newly launched COPE received 1.3 million votes in 2009. In 2014 more than 1.1 million people voted for the EFF, which was also only a few months old at the time of the elections.
In 2019, discontent with our state of politics might prompt voters to look for fresh options. New players could emerge from an ANC implosion and a rearrangement of the opposition.
Or a new political star could be born.
In other parts of the world, the break with convention has not always resulted in what is good. In the era of Zuma and Trump, we can only hope this is as bad as it gets...