Hanson’s reasoning concerning the 2016 election is weak and indefensible. Trump was an exceptionally unprepared and incompetent candidate who was elected simply because racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia are so rampant in the US. Further, there is no evidence that there is a ‘cultural elite’ or an ‘Ancien Regime’ as he describes them.
Donald Trump entered the 2016 presidential race with campaign themes that were extremely controversial and outlandish, including some of his remarks. Trump did not focus on a few quite provoking issues like Social Security growth, gay marriage, transgendered bathrooms, or affirmative action. Trump’s campaign was about his stance on the economy and jobs, war, globalization and illegal immigration. There is a selection of people who argue that Trump was unprepared and an incompetent candidate because of his selection and prioritization of national issues. No, he wasn’t an incompetent candidate and unprepared. He was elected because he was the alternative to something else and he was able to use the criticism against him to give him the spotlight and the advantage.
Trump’s theory of declinism made many anti-Trump progressives and Democrats voice their antipathy loudly to Trump. Trump was then able to “manipulate them as proof of how unhinged and excitable the alternative to himself was” (264). In other words, the anti-Trump progressives and Democrats were so outrageously against Trumpism and his declinisim that he was able to manipulate them and make them look bad. These critics were more focused on making sure Donald Trump did not win the election with his campaign, rather than focusing on promoting their candidate of choice. Donald Trump’s declinism was written off by the media as “sophomoric” (235). They thought it was a very inexperienced theory and ideology for a new president, yet the criticism allowed for him to have an advantage. The critics were “as blind to the scope and resonance of Trump’s signature ideology as they were to the inherent weakness and vulnerability of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy,” proving that his unique personality and way of campaigning allowed for him to be in the spotlight and to win the election (235). The anti-Trump progressives and the Democrats were too busy pointing fingers at Donald Trump, giving him an advantage, when they should be promoting their candidate and not worrying so much about the opposition. This occurred for President Obama as well, one of the reasons why Obama won was because he did not give somebody else the spotlight by trying to beat them, he focused on his campaign and his values which lead him to victory.
It could be possible that the widespread of racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia assisted in his appearance to the media that helped him give him the spotlight to win his election, but not enough to win his campaign. His dedication to “draining the swamp,” working towards a cleansing of the political world, economic perspective and ability to stick to his motto was a bigger and larger reason for his victory in the election. It could be that his neglect to these important topics fueled his critics, giving him the spotlight and the fame to ignite his victory in the election, yet “Donald J. Trump’s presidency is too brief to yet be judged absolutely” (274).
To conclude, Donald Trump used a very unconventional set of techniques and ways to win the election. His controversial personality and beliefs lead to many critics giving him the spotlight in the election, taking away the importance of his opposing candidates. In addition to his initial supporters, he used the criticism of the opposition to gain advantage and win the election. As of now, “neither is it yet clear that Trump is a bad man or a good president, or vice versa, or neither or both” (275). He was clearly stubborn and prepared, since he was able to use his tactics successfully to win the election. I assume that he will continue to do this for the next election, as it gave him the advantage in the previous.
Overall, I feel that this essay was extremely well written and organized. By presenting your argument at the beginning and then going on to use direct evidence from the book you are making your essay especially clear. I think you make some very strong points but I think your argument could be even stronger if you bring in the idea of timing. Hanson talks about the fact that following Obama’s term the democrats were dominated by progressives. This, he argues, influenced many voters who are not of the progressive “elite” to turn away from the democratic party, and in turn, this greatly impacted the results of the election. I think also it would be beneficial to address the idea of a cultural elite because this is also an aspect of the prompt. What are your opinions on the legitimacy of Hanson’s claim about an Ancien Regime? Overall, I think this piece was especially well written and I enjoyed reading it.
Your essay is well written and organized. You also did a good job of supporting your arguments with relevant quotes throughout the entire piece. I think the best part of your essay is when you bring up the point that Trump and Obama had an advantage in their elections because they didn’t take the time to point fingers at someone else. You argued that they are both very different candidates but they both focused on themselves and this is what pushed them to win. I think it is interesting that we have seen this trend over the past couple of elections, and what is even more interesting is the fact that candidates see this but they still get caught up in argument about their opposing candidate and lose track of their own election, which in the end makes them loose. I think that you could add a little bit more of your own opinion in the last paragraph to strengthen your essay even more.
I find that you did a great job finding evidence to support your points to provide a valid argument that answers the prompt. Although, I find you should add more focus on the ‘cultural elite’ as this is a significant and important part of the prompt. It would also be useful to add your own opinion in a few places more often to strengthen how you personally interpret our class discussions and readings. It would be beneficial to in the third paragraph add your own opinion to the closing sentence and add your own opinion rather than closing on a quote. Although I find you made an interesting point in your last sentence as you stated your opinion on how you think Trump will run his next campaign for the presidency. I found it very interesting how you recognized that both Donald Trump and Barack Obama found it beneficial to focus on themselves and their beliefs and argument rather than focusing on other people and candidates by pointing fingers. Additionally, you strongly stated how liberals focused more on tearing Trump down rather than supporting their own candidate. I find that this is an insightful point as this had a great effect on the election.
This is a very well written essay and you provide a lot of great examples from the text. In your intro, you should elaborate more on the point that you make that “he was the alternative to something else” I strongly agree with the point that Trump used the criticism against him to get into the spotlight. The media played a huge part in Trump being elected, as he was constantly being highlighted in some way or another in the media. He was able to exemplify the quote “any publicity is good publicity” and used his prevalence in society to win the presidential race. Additionally, I agree with the point that Trump did not win strictly based off of widespread racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia. Some of these entities may have influenced the election, but they are definitely not the reason Trump won the election. Overall, this is a solid essay and brings up some great points.
I think your essay was very well written and I enjoyed it. The words unconventional and controversial you used in your conclusion to describe Trump are a perfect fit when talking about this topic. Trump’s campaign had certain aspects that we’ve never seen before. This was portrayed greatly in the media during his campaign, which you did a good job pointing to. Even though a lot of this media attention was negative, I liked how you called it the spotlight because that is exactly what Trump used it as. I think the example you used about Obama using the spotlight helped develop your argument because it related to Trump’s campaign. It is hard to find a lot of similarities between the two but this is a good one and it was beneficial to your essay.
Brian, while you make some great points in the focus of your thesis statement one idea you may want to revisit is the concept that Clinton in the election focused more on Trump then here campaign point while Trump in a similar fashion to Obama stuck to his guns. This theory while good in concept, when it comes down to hard evidence Donald Trump called out Hillary just as much if not more then she called out him and the entire election was more or less a playground fight when it came to arguments on a national scale. Instead of using Trump here you may want to give more credit to the media on this one more their incredible amount of press they provided trump in their calling out of his action.
I think your essay presents a well-developed response to the prompt. I think you could have devoted more attention to the section of your thesis where you say “he was the alternative to something else.” You do a good job of clearly explaining the part of your thesis where you say he used “the criticism against him to give him the spotlight and the advantage,” so apply a similar level of analysis to the first part. Doing so would allow you to explore the portion of the prompt that highlights the role of the ‘cultural elite’ or Ancien Regime.’