The document reflects on personal experiences and perceptions surrounding the 2016 U.S. presidential election, exploring themes such as political division, electoral processes, and the impact of media on public opinion. It conveys a sense of disillusionment with the political system, critiques the two-party dominance, and acknowledges the complexities of voter sentiment and engagement. Through a series of insights, the author captures the emotional journey of witnessing a contentious election and its aftermath, ultimately raising questions about faith, unity, and the future of American democracy.

1. 2016 US Election Abecedarian
Lucas Stoltman
University of Washington Bothell
BIS 300: Interdisciplinary Studies
Shannon Cram
Friday, June 9, 2023

2. A is for April Fools
I awaken at twilight after an evening nap on April Fools' Day. Disoriented, my mind tumbles
around the "8:00" glowing on my clock between AM and PM. I realize I hear sizzling emanating from the
kitchen; my mother is cooking dinner. I check the latest poll results online. The news forecasted Hillary
Clinton to win the election for weeks in advance. I check the top headlines. "Donald Trump has become
the 45th president of the United States." Funny April Fools Joke... Despite my hopes, the calendar reads
November 8th, 2016.
B is for Bernie
Bernie Sanders. An idealistic Jewish politician, despite his age, still sharp as a tack. He builds his
base around supporting the youth of America. Wipe away the astronomical college debt. "I don't believe
that the men and women who defended American democracy fought to create a situation where
billionaires own the political process" -Sanders fought for the ordinary citizen with ambitions to
decouple money from politics. A politician with a dream. They said he couldn't do it. We believed he
could.
C is for Caucus
I go to high school at dawn. Only it's Saturday. And it isn't my school. I am 21 years old, and I
don't belong here. I walk inside, feeling wrong without my backpack. Pacing down the halls, looking for a
room I've never been in before, filled with people I've never met. Signs direct me to the library, where I
find them sitting, the chairs arranged in a large circle. There are folks from all different walks of life
here—mothers with their bored children, college students, and geriatric adults in wheelchairs. We may
have differences, but we all agree that the presidential election is important. We are American citizens,
and we want to throw our hats into the ring in electing the Democratic nominee; because it's the least
we can do.

3. D is for Divide
Growing up in the United States since the mid-1990s, I always felt a sense of belonging among
my fellow Americans. I knew we had differences, but overall we could unite under a common banner.
That is, until 2016. I paid little attention to the media. After all, it's usually overblown as they make
mountains out of molehills to attract viewers and turn a profit. However, the 2016 election year was the
first time I felt a severe divide within the country. I remember considering the civil war and whether the
country reached a satisfactory compromise. The political climate had revealed scars within the country
previously obscured by my innocence.
E is for Electoral vote
What is the best way to make a group decision? Should we have a singular leader decide for
everyone like a monarchy? Should we all cast an individual vote, then tally up the results? What if the
majority of voters are grossly uninformed or manipulated? Should we relegate the decision to an elite
group of people whose job it is to stay informed? What's stopping them from also becoming
manipulated? The electoral college in the United States is a smorgasbord of systems attempting to
appease as many people as possible while also disappointing as many people as possible. My vote
simultaneously means nothing and everything within this system. Every few years I struggle with my
feelings around voting; filling a few circles on a sheet of paper is too narrow an outlet for my cacophony
of emotions and ethics.
F is for Faith
What is a belief? We can't see, hear, smell, taste, or touch it, yet we all perform it daily. Belief is
a culmination of our logical and emotional brains' conclusions. Building off this, faith is a belief that
everything will work out. However, faith is also a pointed vector. We direct it to different sources. We
entrust our uncertainty to people, organizations, and ideologies to offload some of our worries. There
are eight million of us, after all. No one person must carry the weight of the world. This is all good until

4. we disagree on who we believe in. Which candidate will save the country from impending doom?
Popular media pushes this familiar narrative on us, and I wonder if greater forces are attempting to
divide us by nefariously pitting us against one another.
G is for Green Party
What would you say if someone asked you your favorite color, then said you could only answer
"red" or "blue?" What if you dislike both of those options? I remember a friend who voted for Jill Stein,
representing the Green Party during the 2016 election. I would have voted for Jill, too... if it were a
choice. Americans constantly espouse their freedom, yet the current political system realistically only
has room for two candidates. The loudest, most polarized voices are often the only ones heard within
the public dialogue. I commend my friend for rejecting the current two-party system in voting for a third
choice. However, I also believe my friend effectively threw their ballot in the trash. The sobering truth is
that sometimes "you're either with or against us." The political stage is too narrow for a third
contestant.
H is for Hillary
Oh, Hillary... The first potential female president. The spouse of Bill Clinton, the second
president ever to suffer an impeachment. Hillary entered the political race vying against Bernie Sanders
for the Democratic candidacy. Spawned by the controversy of her past and present, the public's opinion
of her during the 2016 election was mixed, to say the least. I remember begrudgingly voting for her after
Bernie seceded during the primaries. This is most likely the reason Trump was dumped into our laps that
November. The election was red vs. two different shades of blue, and the democrats couldn't pick a
better shade.
I is for Innocence
When does someone truly lose their innocence? Is it swept away the day they turn 18? Do kids
molt like a snake when they become an adult, leaving the stretched husk behind within their childhood

5. bedroom? Innocence isn't always lost because of some arbitrary age cutoff, instead, lived experiences
and the traumas of the world sand away our adolescent exterior. Thus, as we grow bigger, we also grow
tougher. Able to whether the harsh realities of the world, not because we want to, but because we have
to. 2016 was the year I learned to distrust the media. Now, I take everything with a grain of salt in the
hopes that clinging to nuance will shield me from further disappointment within our political system. My
heart can only take so much...
J is for January 6th
No, I'm not referring to 2016 but rather 2021. Nearing the end of his presidency, Trump
begrudgingly ended his hegemony. However, the attack on the white house that fateful Wednesday
alerted the public to a more sinister side of the American population. The media was critical in
influencing public perception and the events following January 6th. Impeachment, prosecutions, and
Congressional investigations may not have transpired if the press had not emphasized the significance of
the Capitol event (Zulli, 2023). For this reason, we must acknowledge how much sway the US media and
those that control it have. The president of the United States may not be the most powerful person in
the country.
K is for Key Swing States
All states are not created equal. There is a difference in population between Wyoming and
California of 39,643,329 people (US States - Ranked by Population, 2023). The most populated state has
69 times more people than the least populated state. Yet, California is only 1.6 times larger than
Wyoming (Size of California Compared to Wyoming, 2022). As a result of these differences, the electoral
college does some funky maneuvers to represent each state at the federal level during an election. Thus,
deciding the new president falls to only 11/50 states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New
Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin (MAHTESIAN, 2016). This
disparity drastically changes where the candidates spend their time during the campaign season and if

6. you live in one of the other 39 states. Your vote doesn't matter. Though, as someone that lives in
Washington, I may be projecting.
L is for Lesser of Two Evils
What if the candidate we voted for was our first choice? This sentiment shouldn't be as
surprising as it is. Is it so unbelievable to hope that the people we vote into office aren't terrible?
Unfortunately, the chicanery required to rise to the top of the polls doesn't leave much room for
humility. Thus, in my experience, most people vote against the other candidate rather than for their
candidate. It's the least we can do to exercise our civil rights to build a better country. Yet, it mustn't
always be so negative. People can and do help their community during the other 364 days of the year
besides election day. So chin up, the lesser of two evils is still an improvement.
M is for Make America Great Again
Is America no longer great? This answer changes depending on who you ask and what media
they follow. Across the political line, all candidates want to improve their country. However, the devil is
in the details. What do we mean when we say "improve?" Are we building systematic infrastructure to
help prevent people from becoming homeless? Are we building a wall to keep immigrants from taking
our lowest-paying jobs? This disagreement stokes the fires of frustration within us as we watch political
decisions trample our values. Flattened and withered, people on both sides bear wounds as their voices
are seemingly silenced. Who exactly are we making America great for?
N is for Negative Partisanship
People don't always know what they want; however, it is often easier to understand what
we don't want. Thus, many voters practice negative partisanship. Voters decided on the 2016
presidential election not because of their love of Donald Trump but because of their disdain for
Hillary Clinton; according to negative and positive partisanship, one party can simultaneously
adore its candidate while harboring no ill will toward the opposing candidate, thus highlighting

7. the role media played in polarizing the populace (Bakert 2021). Even Republicans hesitant about
Trump voted for him because of their sheer disgust toward having another Clinton in the white
house.
O is for Optimism
People wouldn't attempt anything if they didn't feel their efforts would be repaid eventually. This
optimism nurtures our creativity and prolongs our capacity for discomfort. We push ahead
through tough times because we believe the future will be better than the present. I shared this
optimism during the campaign season 2016 as most polls slated Clinton to win. I remember even
right-leaning sources such as Fox News were claiming Trump would narrowly lose. My
optimism constructed space within me for complacency as my anxiety receded after drinking the
media's panacea that Trump would not become the 45th president of the United States.
P is for Pokémon Go to the Polls
"How do you do, fellow kids?" Hillary Clinton said as she did a kickflip off a skateboard and
dabbed profusely on the haters before the cracking sound of her knees betrayed her youthful
persona. Clinton knew the untapped power of the young voter. With such a large population,
usually too preoccupied with building a career, America's youth rarely vote in election cycles. I
have many theories, but Hillary believed she knew how to reach these kids. The mobile
game Pokémon Go had recently exploded in popularity in July 2016 (Webster, 2017). Thus,
Hillary found her in. Yet, what she hoped would be her trump card became one of her biggest
blunders. A certain magic happens when uncool people adopt new slang; rather than
transforming these insipid people into cool people. The slang is instead tainted, never to be used
by the truly cool people again. Hillary learned this the hard way.

8. Q is for Quip
"What was that?" I ask from the kitchen as I overhear a sound byte from the living room TV my
mom is watching. On the screen, a four-second clip shows Trump making fun of people with
disabilities. In the busy modern world, people are drawn to the quick, easily digestible modicum
of information. The clever quip politicians produce, thus, snowballs into their entire gestalt for
some viewers. As such, the presidential race is no longer bound by a candidate's conscientious
ability to manage the complex economy and social status of the United States but rather by their
conversational ability of how they sound to their audience. Regardless of your opinion of Trump,
it's difficult to argue he isn't highly sociable.
R is for Russian Interference
"In 1991, the Soviet Union broke up into 15 independent states" (Visual Guide to the Cold War,
2023). Thus, the Cold War ended in the early 90s. What happened during the 2016 election,
then? Depending on who you ask, you'll have one of two stories. Either Russian bots interfered
with American social media to coerce people into voting against Hillary, or Trump's victory was
a hard-earned accomplishment. As with many historical events, we may never truly know
whether the Russian government played a role in the US Trump election. We do know that
Trump has close ties with Putin. But, perhaps the concern surrounding Russian social media bots
is a leftover fearmongering tactic from the days of the red scare.
S is for Separate Realities
If a friend and I are asked to recount our experience together, the odds are high that we will
remember different parts. They may forget salient characteristics I remember and vice versa. If
we both agree our contradicting stories are the right ones, did we have the same experience? This
same scenario comes into play with the political climate during election years. Both sides play
narrative warfare through the media as they attempt to convince you that their candidate is holier

9. than Jesus and the other is literally worse than Hitler. If you told someone this right off the bat,
most people would look at you like you're crazy. But, gradually, people shift further into these
ideological camps until we may as well live in different planes of existence. How, then, do we
bridge the gap?
T is for Trump
Famous for his hotels, the 1995 Pizza Hut advertisement, and his notable appearance in Home
Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). The rich, orange man decided it was time to conquer another
facet of society. He was going to become the next president of the United States. Known as a
liberal in the 90s, it was surprising to see Trump as the conservative frontrunner in 2016. Perhaps
this is why he unnerves me, so it's difficult to tell who he truly is beneath the rind. Does he really
want to "Make America Great Again?" Does he understand the gravity of his role as president?
Or is he simply saying whatever he thinks people want to hear in his endless pursuit of power?
U is for Unrest
Imagine laying down to sleep after a long day only to hear your alarm blaring at you a mere five
minutes into your slumber. It's time to get up again, but you desperately need a break. This is
how I and many other Americans felt throughout the 2016 election. The current political system
adheres to a negativity bias, grating against our ears in a low hum like a mosquito while we're
trying to sleep. We can often drown out the noise with our hobbies, relationships, and careers.
But it keeps buzzing away in the background of our lives. I recognize I have a civil duty to
improve my environment for myself and those around me. Therefore, it's good that I realize
there's still more work. Yet, just like excess cortisol, we can suffer debilitating effects after long
periods without addressing the root cause.

10. V is for Vote
You need to vote to do your civil duty as an informed citizen. However, what happens when the
system itself seems rigged beyond repair? As citizens, are we still held to the same
responsibility? What about places where voting takes hours out of your day? How would the
results look if the geographical context did not influence the 2016 election? The Democratic
Party would have emerged as the clear winner, carrying most states with large populations
(Fotheringham, 2021). If voting were as simple as going to a website and clicking a box, current
election cycles would be drastically different.
W is for Wall
The U.S.-Mexico border is 1,951 miles long (Quick Facts about the U.S.-Mexico Border, 2003).
What are the logistics of building such a significant national boundary? There may be a reason
most states use rivers as their dividing line. Just as the US-Mexico wall divides their respective
citizens, the idea of building a wall divides American citizens. At first glance, the idea of
creating clear boundaries is reasonable. However, once we understand why people are fleeing
their countries to come to the US, closing our borders doesn't sound so great. It takes on a
victim-shaming attitude as we cloister ourselves away from the problem of our fellow neighbors.
Is this truly the American dream we hear about in the media?
X is for Xenophobia
We seek ourselves in others. If we're lucky, we'll find similar people. However, if we're equally
lucky, we'll see different people too. These differing people push us to broaden our horizons and
grow our worldview. Expanding our culture is one of the main reasons people travel in the first
place. Yet, much of the conservative party fear immigrants. Within psychology, we learned that
different people react to stress differently. Some look outward for new solutions because the
status quo isn't working. In contrast, others fall back into themselves to a point they can control

11. and feel safe. The retreating behavior helps explain why so many conservatives harbor such ire
for immigrants. Unfamiliar speech and cultural celebrations unnerve the already concerned
citizens that feel our country is on the brink of collapse. What can we do to assure them?
Y is for Youth
Is the system designed to dissuade young voters from sharing their voices? Speaking from my
personal experience, I only sent a letter in my entire life once I turned 18 and voted. Even today,
at 28 years old, I've never sent a note for any reason other than to cast my ballot in elections.
While my situation is extreme, I doubt it's much different for other millennials. We grew up in
the digital era. It makes sense to us, and the fact that we don't vote by visiting a website in 2023
seems ludicrous to me. The youth spend so much time fighting to survive in this economy that
it's no wonder they aren't as involved in the political process as older generations. I suspect
people in power understand this and actively vote to deter the youth from voting in full because
these politicians realize they'd lose the next election if the young spoke up.
Z is for Zealotry
Many people follow Donald Trump with a fervent intensity witnessed only within cults and
religions. I don't blame them for hoping he will save them from their suffering. After all, anyone
would appreciate someone coming down to fix all their problems. However, this blind faith isn't
free. People must critically consider why such a person is coming to their aid. Is the person doing
it because they will make a lot of money? Or are they doing it because they genuinely care for
their fellow Americans? I may not know Trump personally, but how he flips, twists, and
dismisses his words confuses and concerns my trust. Someone wishing to truly help those around
them would speak much more directly and discourage blind zeal within their followers.

12. Works Cited
Clinton, B. (2016, October 4). Bill Clinton: Impact and Legacy | Miller Center. Miller Center.
https://millercenter.org/president/clinton/impact-and-legacy
Bankert, A. (2021). Negative and Positive Partisanship in the 2016 U.S. Presidential
Elections. Political Behavior, 43(4), 1467–1485. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-020-
09599-1
A. Stewart Fotheringham, Ziqi Li & Levi John Wolf(2021)Scale, Context, and Heterogeneity: A
Spatial Analytical Perspective on the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election,Annals of the
American Association of Geographers,111:6,1602-1621,DOI:
10.1080/24694452.2020.1835459
Zulli, D., Coe, K., & Isaacs, Z. (2023). News Framing in the Aftermath of the January 6 Attacks
on the U.S. Capitol: An Analysis of Labels, Definitional Uncertainty, and
Contextualization. The American Behavioral Scientist., 67(6), 702–720.
https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00027642221096333
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MAHTESIAN, C. (2016, June 15). What are the swing states in 2016? POLITICO.
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13. Webster, A. (2017, July 6). Pokémon Go’s wild first year: a timeline. The Verge; The Verge.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/6/15888210/pokemon-go-one-year-anniversary-
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End of the Cold War | A Visual Guide to the Cold War. (2023). Unc.edu.
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U.S.%2DMexico,the%20busiest%20in%20the%20world.