Strong Triadic Closure in Politics
The major point of this article is discussing the theatrics behind politics in general, and more specifically, the theatrics of Donald Trump in the recent anti-Iran-Deal rally in Washington D.C. As the article states, “The businessman (Mr. Trump) arrived well ahead of his speaking slot, and as he lingered, cameras and reporters swarmed, a large hive collecting around him […].” As has happened frequently in his campaign, Mr. Trump makes a very impassioned and theatrical speech, while as per usual avoiding too many actual comments about policy. Nonetheless though, he assists in drawing large crowds of supporters because of his performances on stage. (As a side note, a friend of mine was able to attend the rally and sent me a video of a portion of the speech; as the article states, it was very theatrical and well performed.)
One idea that stood out for me was the positive relationship between not only Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, but also with the other 40 or so conservatives who also appeared for the rally. This highlights the concept of two major groups, X being the liberals and Y being the conservatives, wherein each member in both groups are friendly with the other members of their own respective groups, while they do not associate with members of the other group. The article does not mention any liberals coming to speak at this rally because they would most likely not associate themselves with conservative politicians. Additionally, towards the end of the article, Ted Cruz tells the press that while he does not want to lose to Donald Trump in the primary election, he does hope that after winning the primary election, Mr. Trump’s supporters will then support Mr. Cruz. This statement demonstrates how if each candidate is a node with an edge to each of their supporters, by creating a strong edge between the two candidate nodes, Ted Cruz hopes for triadic closure between himself and many of Donald Trump’s supporters, and thusly will be able to gain their support in the upcoming election.