From "Common Sense" to Memes by Henry Mantel

     Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, Common Sense, was published anonymously on January 10, 1776. In forty-nine pages, Paine clearly laid out the moral and political arguments for declaring independence from Great Britain and fighting for a democratic government. The pamphlet was distributed across the colonies and read aloud at taverns and meeting places. Common Sense was instrumental in rallying the colonists to fight for independence.

     The campaign for independence was one of the first nationwide campaigns in American history. People needed to be convinced to act, to stand up for what was right and throw off the shackles of a tyrannical government. A dedicated group of people worked towards convincing a nation, through every medium available, that something had to be done. Campaigning has always been the foundation of democracy. In order to influence the decision-making process in government, Americans have stood up, talked to their fellow citizens, and encouraged them to take action. While campaigning has changed quite a bit since Paine first penned Common Sense, the need to convince and inspire masses of people remains the same.

     For generations, the only way to campaign was face-to-face contact and print media. In political campaigns, having the candidate speak directly to voters has always been the most effective method. This usually means a lot of traveling, but not always. In the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, presidential candidates would go on “whistle-stop train tours,” stopping at stations to speak from the open platform of an observation car. William Jennings Bryan logged 18,000 miles and made around 600 speeches during his presidential campaign in 1896. William McKinley, his opponent, took the opposite tact and used a “front porch campaign.” McKinley stayed in Canton, Ohio, and had delegations of people come to him, speaking to more than 700,000 people in front of his house. Today, presidential candidates generally still travel a lot.

     Posters have also always been an essential part of campaigning. In the presidential election of 1832, Henry Clay printed one of the earliest campaign posters, portraying Andrew Jackson as a king. Even in the internet age, a single image can influence a race. In 2008, Barack Obama’s “Hope” poster, designed by Shepard Fairey, became one of the most recognizable images of the campaign and helped Obama appeal to young voters.

     When radio was introduced, campaigning started to change. The first campaign covered extensively over the radio was the 1924 presidential campaign. The Republican Party took advantage of the new medium first, opening up an office in New York City in order to broadcast their message on a dedicated station. An internal Republican memo noted that campaigning over the radio required much shorter sentences than platform oration. Although the term wouldn’t be coined until the 1970s, this was the birth of the soundbite.

     After radio, television changed the game. Now voters could see politicians without having to go to see them live; how a candidate looked became just as important as their arguments or what they sounded like. Republicans were again the first to take advantage of the new medium; "Eisenhower Answers America!" was the first campaign ad aired on TV in 1952. Eisenhower's opponent, Adlai Stevenson, abhorred what he thought was the commercialization of the electoral process, but his Democratic successor, John F. Kennedy, did not. During the first televised presidential debate between JFK and Richard Nixon, voters who watched the debate on TV thought JFK won, while those who listened to it over the radio thought Nixon had. Television advertising still dominates campaign spending. Billions of dollars are spent every campaign season on broadcast and cable TV networks.

     Then came social media. Since 2008, countless articles and lectures have been written about social media’s impact on campaigning. Suddenly, voters could get face-to-face contact from thousands of miles away, see campaign ads on their phones, and turn campaign posters into memes. Memes are the inside jokes of the internet, most of them pictures with different text or photoshopped images imposed on them (the historical memes are my personal favorite.)

     In 2016, the memes got political. In those twelve months, the number of memes produced containing political phrases like "MAGA," "libertarian," and "LGBT" increased exponentially. There are now Facebook pages and Twitter accounts devoted to sharing political memes. White supremacists have adopted certain memes as "political dogwhistles." President Trump has retweeted memes several times.

     Memes are not political or moral arguments; they are either jokes or bait, but they are being treated like they have merit. They are shared by thousands of Americans (and bots) every day in lieu of real arguments. They are "fast-food media," very flashy with lots of flavor, but no nutritional value. Russia took advantage of this by churning out thousands of memes in order to sow racial division and support President Trump's campaign (not to mention Brexit.) In preparation for 2018 and beyond, wealthy donors from both parties are putting millions of dollars towards groups dedicated to generating "quick, memeable, shareable content."

     Whether we like it or not, memes have become a part of political discourse and will play a role in every major campaign for the foreseeable future. A single meme may not change anyone's mind, but thousands in aggregate can. To counter their effects, the best we can do is try to have real, good-faith, honest arguments and a little common sense.