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In this week and last week’s modules, you have read about a variety of factors that might explain the outcome in the 2016 Presidential election, including voter turnout, divisions between voters, voting restrictions, campaign finance, party weaknesses and corruption in govt. 

FORUM POST: Based on what you’ve learned from course materials, please answer the following questions: 

What do you think is THE MOST IMPORTANT factor that explains the outcome of the 2016 election? Why do you think this factor is more important than the others? Write 2-3 paragraphs, and support your position with facts and well reasoned arguments from the articles/materials. 

REPLY: Please reply to at least one classmate who chose a different factor to write about. Make sure you consider their arguments carefully and objectively:

What do you find persuasive about their post and what do you think requires further examination and/or support? 

PLEASE NOTE: There is no “right answer” to this question. Many well informed, reasonable people have different opinions about this election. The only “wrong answer” is one that is not supported by evidence, facts, or well reasoned arguments.

I look forward to reading everyone’s point of view, and I know you will be respectful of each other (unlike what we’ve heard from some of our political leaders lately). 

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so the above is the discussion problem ( 2-3 paragraph on your opinion, and is some background about myselve, I am a immigration chinese, and his is for my political science class)

below is the two discussion from my classmate that you need to make a comment on.  ( dont need to be long comment, about 4 sentences is fine.)

1.I was extremely surprised that Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Given that he has no political experience and a questionable history, I thought he didn’t stand a chance. Nevertheless, I was wrong and here we are. I think there are several factors that can explain the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

Firstly, I think the media/social media played a huge role. Throughout the election, the media closely followed the election and published many articles. At the beginning of the election, the majority of these articles were true and accurate. However, towards the middle of the election when the two presidential candidates became clear, the articles people were reading shifted and were no longer genuine. Fake election news articles began to outnumber the truth, and people believed it. According to a Buzz-feed article, at the end of the election fake news vastly outnumbered mainstream news by more than 1 million. In addition to this, many of these fake stories were pro-Trump and anti-Hillary. These stories were all over the place and were hard to avoid. When the human brain constantly sees incorrect or potentially incorrect statements over and over again, it becomes hard to sift through every detail and we began to believe the lies. Many individuals do not have the time to fact-check everything they read and assume articles their friends post are true. 

Another factor that influenced the election results was voter turnout, voter restrictions and voting gaps between age. Although there were more votes in this election than the 2012 election, turnout wasn’t great. Roughly 58% of eligible U.S. voters voted in the election. Which means that about 42% of eligible voters did not vote. Other countries have much higher voter turnout percentages than the U.S. Whether it was because of voter restrictions, or because some simply did not want to vote, almost half of the eligible voter population didn’t vote! That is a huge number of people. There was also an increase of individuals voting for third-party nominees. According to the Washington Post, “The big increase this year was among those casting a vote for someone other than the Republican or Democrat, which hit levels last seen during the candidacies of Ross Perot in the mid-1990s.” In addition to this, many young people did not vote and many older individuals did. It is important for young people to vote because it will make them more likely to vote when they are older. if more young people voted in the 2016 election the turnout could have been quite different.

A third factor that influenced the election is our divided America. For many Americans, election results felt as if the country was split in two. Living in San Francisco, we are lucky that we are exposed to such diversity and acceptance; But we are living in a bubble. I for one, did not know how racist and supremacist half of our country is. Many states in the middle of America are still stuck living in the past and do not want to accept change. According to Pew Research Center, after Trump was announced as President, 67% percent said they were happy, while 68% said they were disappointed. The 2016 election exposed an America of deep divides over race, ethnicity and culture. These are some factors that I think helped influence the 2016 presidential election outcome. 

here is another one:

I think one of the reasons why the Presidential election of 2016, went south was because of the millennial vote.  The article, “Millennials’ stamp of disapproval on voter registration”, from the San Francisco Chronicle mentions (1) the lack of voter registration for young adults is low because of the cost of stamps, how silly that might seem and (2) political issues that concern the millennial generation are not being addressed as one of the number one concern for the future candidate.

I believe that the process of registering to vote on paper for young adults has become somewhat of a pain for them.  Meaning, the millennial’s are the 21st century technologically savvy future voters. These young adult voters will easily register to vote if he or she can do it online. By registering online, I phone, or on an I PAD, not only will it increase the millennial voting rate but also its easier, faster, and direct for the young millennial savvy.

Therefore, I believe if voting registration is made simpler and inexpensive for the young potential voter, it will not be an inconvenience (1) go to the post office to buy a “stamp” or (2) go to the voter registration office and obtain a voter registration application.

thanks