The student news site of Oakton High School

Oakton Outlook

The student news site of Oakton High School

Oakton Outlook

The student news site of Oakton High School

Oakton Outlook

Trump and Technology

Trump and Technology

With the introduction of controversial candidates like Donald Trump the 2016 Presidential race has seen the rise of a new political kingpin: Twitter. Twitter, in its simplest form, is a platform that allows millions of Americans to spew whatever information they want to at any time to the internet. If the account has only a couple hundred followers it’s no big deal, after all that’s an incredibly small portion of the population. But that’s not the case with many political candidates. Trump has 4.6 million followers, and each tweet receives thousands of favorites and/or re-tweets. These re-tweets grow exponentially as the followers of Trump’s followers see them and so on. In previous elections candidates had to rely on press conferences or debates to make statements to the public, something that required time to put together, even in the age of the internet. This election has been characterized very differently. Sanders live tweeted the entire GOP debate, and Trump did the same for the more recent Democratic debate. The crucial thing about Twitter is that it allows instantaneous response.  Typically this speed was reserved for debates, but now any candidate can jump in at any time. Even when they aren’t in the same party, Trump can refute all of Clinton’s points over the web, and vice versa. This gives a lot more power to tech savvy candidates, as speed is essential in politics. The last time technology formed a crucial hinge during an election was during the 1960 election between JFK and Richard Nixon. The first ever televised debate ended up being the death of Nixon’s campaign because it made him a much less appealing candidate due to his nervous appearance in comparison to JFK’s confidence and youth. Twitter appears to be doing the same, allowing a candidate like Trump who normally wouldn’t still be in the race to capitalize off of his unique views. The constant access to the public lets him continue to shock, and in turn continue the massive success of his campaign despite the fact that the GOP dislikes him quite a bit. In coming years Twitter may or may not still be king, but as of now it clearly is affecting the race.

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Trump and Technology