This year's Presidential Election had a lot more riding on it than previous years because of the changing social issues going on around the country. Both candidates were going to implement change for what they thought was the best, if and when elected President of the United States. This week was a tense one for everyone around campus due to tests for their respective classes and even more so the Presidential election.The candidates from the two main parties, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump from the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively, weren't ideal but they were our only options. When the election results rolled in on Wednesday morning, it was a complete shock to everyone that Donald Trump had won and been elected to be the 45th President of the United States. It felt very surreal that he won because he had always been in the news about something offending that he had said leading up the election and no one could have predicted him to actually win.
The change for the better that the nation was waiting for (Hillary Clinton) didn't come, because Donald Trump's idea of change would be devastatingly hurtful to a considerable portion of the American population that Trump's policies don't seemingly benefit. It was a crushing defeat for half of the country because the change that Donald Trump was going to implement could be described as unconstitutional regarding his policies on immigration and peoples rights on social issues. It's interesting how Black Mirror's "The Waldo Moment" episode was just like this year's Presidential Election in a sense due to the candidate running for office that at first wasn't taken seriously actually won.
The way that Black Mirror's "The Waldo Moment" episode mirrors this year's election is mainly because of the media portrayal of the candidates. The "Waldo" in our case, is Donald Trump, because just like Waldo, he was an outsider and media personality that wasn't;t taken seriously when it was announced that he was running for a government position. At first, in the episode it was just a joke that Waldo would run for Parliament by-elections but it escalated very quickly due to the reliability of Waldo to the British masses. Waldo was a symbol of hope to the masses because he was different and had popularity with the population because of his tv show. Due to the media, Waldo kept gaining traction and began to be took seriously as a candidate for Parliament. Trump, like the population that he appealed to was tired of the way things were being done by the government and wanted to do something about it just like Waldo.
Waldo and Trump symbolized the change that the people wanted and could be brought & implemented by them respectively. The media had the main role in how the outcomes of the elections on Black Mirror and the 2016 Presidential election were decided. In the end, it came down to who had the most publicity and for Trump & Waldo any publicity was good publicity. The main reasoning behind it was that, no matter how outlandish the candidates (Waldo and Trump) said, people still were talking and thinking about them at the end of the day. Due to the constant bombardment of Waldo and Trump, voters always had them in mind. The "Waldo Moment" and this year's Presidential election showed me how truly powerful the media can have a role in change.
2 comments:
Hey Ken, I really like your comparison of the election and the Waldo Moment, it was interesting.
I really like that you started off by describing the importance of this election. There was definitely more passion on both sides, and more concern due to the open Supreme Court Justice seat and the huge transforming demographics and trends in our country.
However, I think it is a little generous to call Hillary Clinton "the change for the better the country was waiting for." Hillary Clinton had extremely low approval ratings, and a large following of 'Clinton-haters' from her time as Secretary of State and her husbands actions while he was President. If Donald Trump had faced a more likable candidate the results could have been different.
I agree with everything else you say.
I like that you mentioned the changing social issues in the country, and that those were a big factor in the election. I don't think a lot of people have mentioned that or had that into consideration, I think it's a great point.But also I think that you could have mentioned that the voting population isn't really even half of our whole population, so Trumps new policies would affect more than half maybe, or less than half. Also that those who put him in power weren't a majority in the whole country either. But I do like your point about social media having a big impact on voters.
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