How Donald Trump Used Memes to Win the 2016 Election--Part 2 · 5:58pm Nov 19th, 2020
Stage 4: Maturation (New phages are created inside the cell)
The year is 2009, and the world is a vastly different place from when Trump had his limelight. The once-friendly mainstream media had become politically charged and divided. The advent of the internet provided mankind with a tremendous gift and a debilitating curse. Information was easier than ever to access, yet truth was harder than ever to find. Americans became more politicized, cynical, and distrustful than ever. Celebrities now faced unprecedented scrutiny from the public eye, and one slip-up had the potential of becoming national news. Trump had a tremendous uphill battle ahead of him.
But luckily, one other thing had changed since the 80s: memes! Thanks to the internet, memes had more influence than ever before. And if Trump knew how to do anything, it was how to make memes.
If you look back at presidents through recent history, their legacies are best remembered by memes.
Nixon: “Because people have got to know whether or not their president’s a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”
Reagan: “Tear down this wall.”
George Bush Sr: “Read my lips.”
Clinton: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
And we use these little memes from the past to judge their entire reputation in the present. Two of the most famous and fondly-remembered presidents of the 20th century are Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. And unsurprisingly, they are also responsible for two of the greatest quotes (memes) ever.
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
Both these presidents (both of which are also on US currency) were skilled communicators, breaking their language into memes to make them more impactful. But these two great men had something else in common: in order for a meme to spread, it must have a means of spreading. They secured public office and preserved their legacy due to their usage of the new technologies at the time.
Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to regularly address the American public using radio. There was something comforting about hearing the president’s own voice in your own home. It established a connection between the presidency and the public. There’s a reason he was the only president elected 4 times in a row. Americans really trusted him, and that was mostly due to his means of communication. Similarly, JFK was the first television president, appearing much more confident and endearing than his sweaty, stuffy competition in Nixon during debates, and he used this charisma to narrowly win his own election.
Just as how Roosevelt used radio, and JFK used television, Donald Trump used Twitter to reach the average American and gain an advantage over his rivals. Yes. You heard me.
Donald Trump's Twitter is his greatest weakness. But it's also his greatest strength. Sure, his Twitter opens him up to the greatest amount of scrutiny any candidate has yet to face. Trump’s tweets are mostly unfiltered, uncensored, and unsubstantiated. Anything he says paints a glowing red target on his back for the world to take aim at. So considering all that, how could his Twitter give him an advantage?
The answer? Memes.
Twitter, for all its glaring faults, is exceptional at spreading attention. The three fundamental mechanics of Twitter facilitate a viral spread of information.
- Retweets allow you to spread information to as many people as possible.
- The Trending feed allows information to spread as quickly as possible.
- The character limit forces you to bundle information into small chunks.
In order for Trump to rebrand himself as a politician, he would have to use Twitter to spread his messages as efficiently as possible. Twitter would allow Trump to deliver words directly from his brain to the American people. And there are two things that spread fastest on Twitter: controversy and memes. Trump was about to take the platform by storm with some controversial memes.
Stage 5: Lysis (Release of the new viruses, finding a new host, and repeat)
All the pieces are in position for Trump to make his presidential gambit. He had his audience, his direction, and a vehicle for a hostile takeogre of American politics. Now was the time for action.
Nobody was prepared for what Trump was about to do. Maybe that’s why they got so upset, shocked, or mad. You had to be a little mad to realize what Trump was about to do. Trump was about to rise to political power with the dark arts of weaponized memes.
Only the dankest minds on the internet had theorized their existence, but no one actually thought anyone in power would be mad enough to use them. Most people just see memes as harmless fun. And most of the time, that’s what they are. But there’s a dark side to memes. Just as memes can build people up, memes have the power to tear people down.
Howard Dean was a man who ran for president in 2004. He was a good candidate who was ahead of his time. He pioneered using the internet for grassroots fundraising, and was credited for creating the campaign strategy for Barack Obama’s victory in 2008. He used this fundraising to become a clear Democratic frontrunner heading into the Iowa caucus.
And then it all came crashing down around him.
This one scream--this inconsequential, innocent voice crack--was enough to halt his campaign in his tracks. The incessant and relentless cable and broadcast news replayed the scream 633 times over the next four days. Howard Dean gave up not even a month later.
This destroyed his entire reputation. All the years grinding, all his experience, all the strategizing, all the preparation, all his policies, all his platform boards, his entire political agenda--none of it mattered. Howard Dean’s campaign was utterly ruined by one little meme.
This meant Trump understood the capacity for memes to destroy a presidential candidate. And he knew how the American media worked, being subject to it for 30 years. That meant he knew their capacity to eviscerate the public image of anyone. And he knew how to avoid that fate.
In The Art of the Deal, it says, “One thing I’ve learned about the press is that they’re always hungry for a good story, and the more sensational, the better. It’s in the nature of the job, and I understand that. The point is, if you are a little bold or outrageous, or if you do things that are bold or controversial, the press is going to write about you. I’ve always done things a little differently, I don’t mind controversy, and my deals tend to be somewhat ambitious. Also, I achieved a lot when I was very young, and I chose to live in a certain style. The result is the press has always wanted to write about me.”
Donald Trump was ready to become president, and here’s how he did it.
We start in March 2011. Trump had teased a run for president in 2012, but decided against it despite being one of the highest-polling candidates. Trump decided to attack Obama over the validity of his birth certificate. Beginning in July, he brought his political rants to his Twitter account. His comments, of course, are controversial and draw heavy media attention.
Trump sacrificed his relatively clean public image to liberals and the political establishment while endearing himself to hardcore conservatives. This was the beginning of his transition from celebrity to political figurehead. In 2012, he also witnessed Mitt Romney run a squeaky-clean campaign that kept controversy to a bare minimum. He ran one of the most cautious political campaigns in recent history, up until his 47% comment was discovered.
Anyway, Trump continued his criticism into 2012, and over the course of the year, he would double down on his anti-Obama crusade, slamming him every chance he got. He didn’t let up for more than three years. And on June 15, 2015, Trump announced to the world that he was running for president. He spoke for more than 45 minutes, but only two things stuck out.
1: I will build a great, great wall on our southern border.
2: And we will make our country great again.
And as you can expect, this was the general reaction of everyone else:
The things he said were just so ridiculous. And ridiculed he was, on the news, in talk shows, and on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Trump became a national pariah overnight.
Many would have called Trump’s debut a total disaster. But Trump had actually made one of the greatest presidential debuts of all time. Why? It got people talking. On every network across America, on every social media platform, everyone was talking about one man. They saw his big, bold logo, they questioned building a wall, and they debated making America great again.
Through his debut, we can perfectly see the duality of his meme strategy--offense and defense. He protecc but he also attac. Building a wall is his offense--controversial and polarizing, and spreads through anger generated by his opposition. Controversy leads to attention, and attention leads to a viral meme. Meanwhile, Make America Great Again is perhaps the most effective campaign slogan of the 21st century. It’s defensive, vague but meaningful, deflects attention from other issues, represents Republican ideology, and is a rallying call for other supporters. These two memes, his shield and spear, were the building blocks of his foundation. They gave him attention and support. But most importantly, they gave him a clear direction.
American politics are complicated. Americans are very passionate about politics, but very few Americans understand politics. Most Americans just don't have the time to research such a thing. Some Americans are too lazy. And some are just too stupid. One of the biggest challenges for any political candidate is how to get the public interested in what they have to say. Their messages are just too complicated, and as a result they get ignored and forgotten.
Trump understood this. His solution was to use memes to communicate a simple message to as many people as possible. After all, a meme is the fastest way to put an idea in someone’s head. Which is easier to understand, the Trans-Pacific partnership, or Make America Great Again?
Donald Trump began his status as a media darling. He was about to become their worst nightmare. For the next 18 months, Donald Trump throttled the media with an endless stream of bits, quips, and memes. Every news station in the country became Trump tv. The media wanted so desperately to tear him down, just like they had done with Mitt Romney and Howard Dean.
But Trump was different. Both Romney and Dean had a single controversial moment that drew all of the media’s focus. Trump gave the media a new controversial moment every week! The media couldn’t fixate itself on a single problem, and they just faded into the background. The only common denominator was Donald Trump’s name. And Donald Trump would milk the media for $5,000,000,000 worth of free publicity.
Furthermore, by baiting the media to focus on his petty, self-made controversy, he overshadowed his most glaring weakness: his lack of any political expertise. NBC, CNN, and even Fox News were all trying to destroy him. But little did they know they were actually playing into his advantage and spreading his memes further than any campaign advertisement ever could.
There was no going back. Trump was sacrificing his entire public image, his entire legacy, for a shot at becoming president. And the media called his bluff. Game on! Trump himself said it best: Go big or go home.
Now, in order to become the president, he had to become the Republican Nominee. He entered a field with 16 other candidates, the largest field of any party in American history. You’d think this would provide Trump with a great struggle, but once again, it actually played into his advantage.
Thanks to the extremely disproportionate amount of media coverage on Trump in both news broadcasts and televised debates, Americans viewed the entire Republican primary as Trump vs the field. Even though the other candidates were real politicians with real political experience, they simply couldn’t get their brands out there to the people, because Trump soaked up everyone’s attention. Trump was always positioned in the center of the panel, further evidence of the media’s relentless focus on him. And since there were simply so many candidates starving to share airtime with Trump, no one could get adequate coverage. They all tripped over each other.
Heading into the debates, only a few candidates even posed a threat to Trump: Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, and Ted Cruz. And if you thought these veteran politicians would humiliate Trump in a real debate, you’d be
Trump shut down every one of them with no more than a label. But not just any label. Trump trumped over his opponents with weaponized memes.
- Jeb Bush: Weak. “The weakest person on this stage, by far, is Jeb Bush.” “And we don’t need a weak person being president of the United States, okay?” “You’re going to have to get out there yourself, Jeb… Weak. Weak, pathetic people. Low-energy is a better term.”
- Marco Rubio: Little. “Don’t worry about it, Little Marco.” “Little Marco, Little Marco.”
- John Kasich: A disgusting eater. “Now, you look at Kasich--I have never seen a human being eat in such a disgusting fashion. It’s disgusting. Do you want that for your president? I don’t think so!”
- Ted Cruz: A liar. “But it’s not what you said out there. Lyin’ Ted.” “Lyin’ Ted. I call him Lyin’ Ted. He picks up the Bible, and then he puts it down, and then he lies, okay? Lyin’ Ted.”
You might think this is completely ridiculous, and that childish name-calling could never supplant real political argumentation. But the results speak for themselves. Trump can diffuse tough questions with a single meme.
Megyn Kelly: “You called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.”
Trump: “Only Rosie O’ Donnell.” *cue the crowd cheering*
The Iowa caucuses took place on February 1st, 2016. Even at this early point in the race, five candidates already dropped out because they couldn’t gain any traction over the oversaturated field. And in those caucuses, Donald Trump earned more votes than all but one candidate. This wasn’t a joke. These votes mattered. The voters realized Trump as a real candidate. His strategies were working. After the caucuses, three more candidates withdrew from the race. On February 9th, Trump won the New Hampshire primary. Three more candidates withdrew. On the 20th, he won South Carolina. He was now the clear front-runner in the race. Jeb Bush, who many political pundits viewed as an early favorite, dropped out of the race after just three state elections. By mid-March, just two candidates remained. And on May 3rd, Ted Cruz dropped out of the race, leaving Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee.
Trump didn’t just win over his opponents. He crushed them. Trump won the nomination with the largest margin of victory in the history of the Republican primaries. He took a struggling and divided party and united it under a single platform. Donald Trump was the Republican candidate. And he had just one more, Clinton-sized challenge separating himself from the presidency.
You know the rest of the story. What followed was one of the most divisive and brutal campaigns in American history, broken only by perhaps the 2020 one. Both Clinton and Trump engaged in meme warfare. Trump’s pussy grab over Clinton’s Emails. Racist Donald over Crooked Hillary. Legend holds that they actually talked about real issues during the debates, but this has yet to be proven.
At the end of the day, Trump had better memes than Clinton. And mainstream meme culture simply favored Trump more because he understood memes and knew how to use them. Think of how many dank memes have been made that star Trump. Think of how many templates that have him in it. Think of the compilations on YouTube, and the parodies of pop songs. Think of how much easier it is to meme Trump than to meme Hillary. Presidents and memes have coexisted before, sure--notably Obama in cursed images and geometric shapes. (I still don’t know his last name, guys!) But never to the extent that Trump had.
Make America Great Again is much more of an impactful slogan than whatever Clinton had. What was it again? Love Trumps Hate? It literally has Trump’s name in the middle of it. And by addressing Trump so directly, you not only legitimize him as a candidate, but you give the impression that he’s winning. So that can’t be it. It must have been, “America is great because America is good.” What does that even mean? No, wait, it must have been, “Pokemon Go to the polls.” (Did you know that Pokemon Go dipped in players after that point?)
And on election day 2016, Americans Pokemon went to the polls and elected Donald Trump president of the United States.
Now, considering everything that transpired, you can complain all you want. You can call the system rigged. (Ignoring how Democrats insist election fraud is nonexistent when Joe Biden appeared to win) You can say he cheated, even though there’s no evidence to support it. You can riot in the streets and accomplish nothing as usual except exacerbate hatred against your movement. You can call the tens of millions of Americans who voted for Trump a racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic bigot.
But it doesn’t change the fact that Donald Trump, a man with no political experience, used memes to become president of the United States. And sure, he might have trashed liberalism to do it, but you know what they say: the ends justify the memes.
I promised myself I wouldn't get involved here but this needs to be addressed. Your little bit at the end:
Liberalism. Nown.
1: Willingness to respect or accept behaviour or opinions different from one's own; openness to new ideas.
2: A political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise.
Was the surprisingly (almost shockingly) heavy handed anti-Trump critique at the end intentional or are you just incorrectly using the word 'Liberalism', using it as a catch-all net for the viewpoints of whom you define as 'Liberals'?
5401220
I'm saying he provoked and revealed the hatred of liberals in his path to victory. Liberalism will collapse on its own without the help of Trump. Liberalism is inherently hollow because it is selfish and immoral, and no immoral institution can endure. I wouldn't mind helping it along, however. Good has to endure.
5401229
Right.
You're clearly having a giggle and I've taken you too seriously.
No actual, honest to God, Conservative Christian in America (politically literate ones anyway) would consider Civil Rights (like Freedom of Religion or Freedom of Assembly) or Free Enterprise (Being able to start and grow a business might not be a Patriotic Duty, but it does a lot of good for your community and local government ) to be selfish and immoral.
Blessed be and sorry for not getting the joke.
5401276
That's okay. It says a lot to know that I'm taken seriously. It's inspiring, in a way. But it also means it's hard to tell when words are joking or actually serious. Especially considering that words alone are hard to convey proper meaning. They need emphasis, a tone, and the personality, voice, and appearance of the person saying it.
5401298
Exactly. You lose a lot on the internet.
Another reason why Visual Memes are effective in communication: provided that the person seeing it understands the context of the image's source.
https://imgflip.com/i/4n40c4
Back in the day, this was called 'soundbiting'.
The Heritage Foundation, which is a Trump leaning body, analysed the history of mail-in ballots from 1984 to 2020. They found that out of 2 billion ballots cast, there were only 1,285 cases of voter fraud. This works out to a rate of 0.00007%. Trump's own election officers backed this up.
Statistically, you're more likely to be hit by an asteroid then for voter fraud to occur.
Finally, to those saying that the media cannot call elections;
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5401481
Ooh, would you look at that! A clapback on Twitter! The entire argument about a sketchy election is now disintegrated!
Give me a break. The same media that tells you Joe Biden is the undisputed president is the same media that told us for four years that Russians interfered in 2016. (At least until the Mueller Report came back and proved there was no ground to stand on, so they moved on to the next conspiracy theory and the next method to get rid of him)
Meanwhile, even though the chances of voter fraud are small, there are actual documented reports and testimonies of votes being thrown away, all of them for Trump, orders from voting helpers to date back the ballots, and glitches in voting machines giving votes to Biden. Some of them have been corrected, and some reports still need to come in, and whether or not that makes a difference, the fact remains that the people in charge of what you see have been trying to get rid of Trump for years because he poses a threat to what they plan to do. When was the last time you saw them call Trump--not even kind--just not racist?
If Biden lost, these same people saying we should accept the results of the election would be out rioting in the streets and demanding a recount. We are going through the legal process to check and see if this is legitimate, and all of a sudden, it's a coup?
"Oh, I can't believe the Supreme Court is looking into the legitimacy of a sketchy election!" "Don't worry, fellow Redditor! These nine judges know exactly the kind of people we are."
Amy Coney Barrett's nomination was plagued with liberals screaming about how she is a racist despite adopting black kids and for being Christian in an office of power.
Neil Gorsuch's nomination was plagued with liberals screaming he was a rapist and that he drunk beer.
And Clarence Thomas was nominated despite liberals' screeching that he was a conservative black man.
The justices know exactly the kind of people liberals typically are. Take that however you will.
5401505
The large scale obstruction of Mueller's investigation has something to do with that. Also, don't know if you saw, but every single lawsuit Trump has put forward has been rejected by the courts due to a lack of evidence, and Biden won the recount in Georgia. I am aware that the Electoral College is yet to meet, but in 33 of 50 US states they have to abide by the popular vote. If the people who elect the Head of State are just going to ignore what the people say, what is the point in asking them?
The Pennsylvania postal worker admitted he made the story up.
I presume you're referring to the papers found in the dumpster in Georgia? Those weren't ballots. Those were empty envelopes marked 'ballot', because the ballots had been removed from them and counted. There is no evidence of ballots received within protocol being junked.
If you're referring to Michigan's policy of putting in 1st January 1900, that's part of the process of inputting the ballots. The correct dates are put in later when they are counted.
I've also heard stories of glitched voting machines assigning Biden votes to Trump. This happens every election. Does rather raise the question of why you'd use voting machines at all...
All 50 US states have reported, according to the BBC (which is more reliable than AP, in my opinion). Whilst Trump's...unconventional approach to leadership would certainly ruffle some feathers, there isn't enough evidence to support a 'Deep State' conspiracy.
5401506
Why did a clerical error in Fairfax County cause the votes for Joe Biden to be inflated by roughly 138k as he was losing?
Sure, Michigan’s date policy is just a policy. But why are Detroit city workers claiming they were ordered to date back ballots that were received too late?
Seems odd that a mail carrier in Pennsylvania has a sworn affidavit saying he was directed by supervisors to collect and submit late ballots, which were then backdated by the supervisors so they would seem legit.
How did Biden get an outcome of, like, 87% in many city wards in Wisconsin? And why is it that Wisconsin allowed over 100,000 people to illegally pass ID requirements by simply stating they were prevented from leaving their homes due to Covid?
How about Biden losing the Bellwether Counties, which usually predict the outcome of an election in the vast majority of cases?
In North Arlington, New Jersey, ballots were found in dumpsters, as was in Essex County, New Jersey. Kentucky and California also reported ballots found in dumpsters, not even counting if Pennsylvania and Atlanta are true.
Windows were blocked at ballot counts. Mostly Republican ballot watchers were forced to stand more than 25 feet away where they can’t see for “Covid reasons.” Republican ballot watchers were also forcibly removed, and Democrats openly admitted they had ballot watchers pretending to be Republican. Poll station workers were taking pens and giving sharpies, then not counting ballots written in sharpie.
And finally, ballots were forged with dead people’s names in Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Los Angeles, and Nevada. Is all of this normal? All of this is a cope? All of this is a stubborn refusal to accept defeat?
5401514
1. Fairfax County's swing was caused by postal ballots, and Democrat voters favour postal voting. Furthermore, Biden asked his supporters to vote by mail, whereas Trump asked his supporters to vote in person. In Virginia, postal ballots, irrespective of when they are received, are counted after the in-person ballots. Fairfax County is also home to the DC suburbs, which are a Democrat sector. These three factors together explain the swing from Trump to Biden.
2. No evidence whatsoever to back this claim up, according to the courts.
3. He stated he had misheard a conversation between his superiors.
4. Cities tend to go Democrat. See 1 for more detail on how this works. Again, no evidence of illegal registration.
5. So? Ohio has been wrong in the past; between 1830 and 2020 it has not gone with the winning candidate 5 times (1884, 1892, 1944, 1960, and 2020). Furthermore, Democrats took the White House without winning Ohio on 5 occassions-the ones listed above.
6. Those ballots had been filled out improperly. If ballots are filled out wrong, they are rejected.
7. None of those claims are true, and can be debunked by watching CCTV footage of the polling stations. Not only that, but the Electoral Commission of Arizona confirmed that ballots in Sharpie were not being rejected; they were just as valid as any other pen.
8. Ballots submitted by dead people are rejected automatically. The Trump Team did submit a list of voters they claimed to be dead in Michigan. CBS ran a scan of all the names. None of the people mentioned in the list were dead.
To summarise, the arguments made claiming the election was 'stolen' and fraudulent are false and lack any evidence to back them up. This is why every single lawsuit put forward by Trump and his lawyers has been rejected.