Networks and the election
In his blog post Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, predicts a landslide victory for Trump. He argues that Clinton supporters bully and intimidate Trump supporters. He therefore, cannot in good conscience support Hillary. Scott Adams has been following the election closely and reporting the results based on who has been winning in the “persuasion” game. He noted Trump’s success in the primaries as a result of his branding: lyin Ted, Low energy Jeb, etc. He labeled Hillary a crook but she responded by branding Trump as a monster, someone who could not be trusted with the nuclear codes. Monsters are scarier than crooks so she was ahead in the persuasion game, up until recently, according to Adams. He claims because Hillary’s supporters have been bullying those who do not agree with them, on election day huge amounts of people will push back and vote for Trump.
In a network, voters arent all decided. Some are voting for Trump, some are undecided, etc. If Adams is correct and Hillary supporters have been bullying those who dont agree with them, its possible hordes of voters turn out to propel Trump into the white house. This would be the response given sufficient agitation is met. As polls stand right now, it appears Clinton will grasp the victory. However, it is possible that polling is providing a false narrative as many of those agitated by the current state of affairs in politics may refuse to answer polls. There is no way to know for sure whether Adams is on to something, or if he merely happened to predict Trump’s rise and nomination by pure luck. However both candidates should heed Adams’ advice: they need to reel back negativity to prevent turning off potential voters. At this point in time, bullying the opposition could create more problems than it could solve. To maximize their control and power over the network, both candidates will need to start pushing a more positive message to give voters a reason to vote; otherwise turnout will be low and the outcome will be a toss up.
Source: http://blog.dilbert.com/post/152293480726/the-bully-party