How do you bring down a political candidate who is, by all means, more experienced, and incredibly qualified? Donald Trump seems to think the best way to accomplish this is to depend on popularizing conspiracy theories and spreading blatant lies and this seems to be working alarming well.
Less than a month ago, concern for Hillary Clinton’s health was only really an issue for a collect few right-wing conspiracy theorists on the Internet. Then, in early August a photo a Clinton, taken in February, slipping while walking up the stairs began circulating and her health became a trending topic on twitter, but still not a mainstream issue.
In the following weeks the topic was discussed on Fox News, with Sean Hannity devoting an entire week of coverage towards it. Then,about a week later, Trump seemed to have discovered this conspiracy theory and began alluding to it in his speeches, saying she lacks the physical stamina to be president and commenting on her coughing on separate occasions, and appeared to have fully embraced this internet conspiracy theory as an actual political issue.
Then, on September 11, Hillary Clinton fainted attending an event, located in the same city where models made headlines for fainting from extreme heat during Kanye West’s fashion show just three days earlier, and the Trump Campaign hit what was perhaps its greatest stroke of luck yet.
In response the Clinton campaign revealed she had been diagnosed with pneumonia, but she had chosen not to disclose it until then and honestly its not hard to see why see why she would not want to disclose this. In a time where her simply coughing during a speech made national news headlines it’s understandable that she would think revealing she had pneumonia would hurt her campaign.
Trump seized the opportunity to one-up Clinton and announced he would appear on the Dr. Oz show to discuss his health. Meanwhile, Clinton released the information from her most recent physical examination to the public. Donald Trump did not release his records to the public, he merely discussed the results with Dr. Oz, where he was said to be overweight, but otherwise seemed fine. However, it certainly seems that Hillary Clinton is the one who will continue to be attacked for her health by the most committed Trump supporters, who continue to question her health.
This strategy of Trump is nothing new and is reminiscent of the birther movement he played a role in popularizing. This conspiracy theory (that Barack Obama was secretly a Muslin born outside of the United States) started in 2004 by many-time-failed political candidate Andy Martin. Trump latched onto this conspiracy theory and became one of its best known advocates, still not claiming to be convinced even after Obama released his birth certificate in 2012. Until he finally admitted Obama was born in the United States on September 16th of this year and, in an interesting twist, he is now attempting to claim Hillary Clinton started the birther movement.
This tactic also made an appearance during the presidential primary when Donald Trump discussed Ted Cruz’s father being involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This theory can be traced back to a National Inquirer article published earlier this year.
Actions like these are troubling because they detract from real issues on the campaign trail. As headlines about conspiracy theories go mainstream, they take attention away from a candidate’s policy positions, agenda and character and lead to a camping that caters to the lowest common denominator. A campaign for an office as important as the President of the United States should not involve ridiculous conspiracy theories. Instead of trying to make as many crazy headlines as possible, it should try to make headlines with its ideas and proposals to better our country.
