Pissing and Moaning on the Campaign Trail 2016

Blue Lowrance
Aug 28, 2017 · 3 min read

As unimaginable as it may seem, liberals on social media helped get Trump elected. I’m not here to discuss Clinton’s pied piper e-mail, fake news bashing her or Bernie supporters voting for Trump, I’m here to discuss an effect that has not yet been looked at so far as I have found, it’s the effect of social media and how it shaped views. I’ll call it the “Internet Opinion Defiance Reaction”, and it seems to have a profound effect on politics.

Each side, right or left, fell comfortably into their personal echo chambers on social media as presidential primary campaigns began, this isn’t the root cause of the divide, but the result of right wing polarization being met with the same from the left much later. From the day Trump entered the race he was testing the waters and quickly found an audience in the Alt-right, among Breitbart readers and some Fox news viewers; as a matter of fact, Breibart could easily be considered Trump Campaign headquarters, so how do liberals fit into this, you ask? Liberal media such as Huff Post, Mother Jones, etc. began bashing Trump and alongside that call came the politically charged social media posts, memes pointing out a dreadful candidate, who in all his bombastic glory, the liberals were not wrong about, and on the left they can sit back and feel smug that they were right, but everyone missed the new effects of social media. This isn’t blaming anyone, no one could have guessed what results political social media activity could create.

Social Media can be a very appealing thing to political junkies, connecting with other like-minded individuals supporting a candidate or bashing another, but this was new, and anyone can pretend to be something they are not on the internet. Right wingers made fake profiles and entered facebook groups, discussions and more under the guise of supporting a democratic candidate then grabbed screenshots of what the “Libtards” were saying. Obviously, liberals primary target for memes, shared articles, and general shock and horror were Trump. The Alt-right salivated over the possibility of electing someone who represented their interests in office, while more centrist conservatives remained appalled by Trump’s behavior. Sprinkling tidbits of Liberal animosity gleaned from their groups towards Trump in Republican pages, the Alt-right galvanized the anger of more conservatives. The right was beginning to see how much the “Libtards” despised Trump, and psychologically, that was all that was needed to ensure trump would win the nomination. Large quantities of otherwise rational republicans jumped on the Trump express simply because it would piss off liberals, and they knew this because he was the left’s primary target for criticism on every form of social media.

In the general this continued, liberals bashed Trump and his republican base grew larger having garnered the support of even those republican voters that were repulsed by him. Liberals could make this happen completely unwittingly, but now with careful analysis we can see what power social media can wield. Liberals helped determine what the right thought of Trump, and because the left hated him, many republicans became determined to vote for him. This helps answer how any rational human being could vote for Trump, they simply weren’t being rational in their joy of sticking it to the liberals.

In the coming years, our country will have a lot of cleaning up to do and fences to mend because of Internet Opinion Defiance Reaction and what it led to in 2016, but knowing what effect opposing groups can have on the other could be a very powerful tool come 2018 and 2020.

I live in Texas, and know many people who regret voting for the Orange blot, of whom voted out of absolute conviction he was the right man for the job, but never could explain exactly why. The reason was simple, liberals despised him and after Obama, all the right wingers were seething with self-righteous indignation over what liberals had “done” to them and the country and what they wanted was retribution.

Liberals unwittingly helped to elect Trump, but in doing so, liberals also awoke the masses who are now actively attending town hall meetings, educating themselves on governmental processes, bills in the house or senate, protesting and actively engaging in the process.

Now, if liberals would form groups for state and local government, and bash the hell out of the best republican candidate when there is more than one in republican controlled areas, you may just find yourselves with moderate republicans open to more progressive ideas in office.

)
Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade