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Making a case for Structural Balance in the 2016 Election

Republican Party Nominee Donald Trump has been causing a frenzy in this year’s elections. From statements such as “Avoiding taxes make me intelligent”, to “We’re going to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it”, to statements that may qualify as sexual assault, Trump has caused many Americans to feel insulted and sickened.

Despite all this, his fanbase and voter count has remained rather firm. From this phenomena, we can see topics of networks that we’ve seen in class.

Most fans of Trump view Hilary Clinton, the Democratic Party Nominee, as a liar, and a cheat. Most of the Democrat voters will view Trump as a sickening, unqualified individual for the position of the President of the United States. We see from a large scale perspective, this may be viewed as a ‘structurally balanced’ network. Majority of Trump supporters dislike Clinton supporters and vice versa.

By focusing into these two groups, we also see principles of strong ties, and triadic closure principle forming. In particular, Trump supporters have shown a sense of togetherness amongst each other – particularly in the sense that they believe Trump is the right candidate for the job – and thus can be represented as having strong ties in between them.

On the other hand, for Clinton supporters, it’s a bit different. Some believe that she is truly the right candidate for the job, while others believe that she is the best available candidate for the job. Thus, with differing views, it may be hard to represent each ties as strong ties. However, it may be fair to view that each Clinton supporter has a weak-tie between them, as they all are united under the same candidate. Furthermore, it is fair to say that at rallies for both parties, individuals who may not know each other, may develop connections to each other – helping satisfy the Triadic Principle.

Lastly, it is interesting to note that Clinton stands at risk of losing more voters, than Trump to 3rd party candidates due to the weakness amongst the supporters themselves. Of course, simple and broad principles such as balance of structure in networks, and Triadic closure will most likely not directly alter the result of the election as a whole – but it surely is fascinating to see it currently play a part in many different ways.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/13/politics/2016-election-donald-trump-crowds-rallies/

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