Last Tuesday, Election Night, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in an upset victory, which left millions of Americans ecstatic and pleased, but also left millions of other Americans depressed and scared. This vast divide in reaction played out live on Twitter, with Clinton supporters expressing their sadness and pain and Trump supporters celebrating his win.
#ElectionNight captured the reaction of many different viewpoints all within one hashtag. However after the results, we saw different hashtags arise for varying groups to form communities in. Clinton supporters got the hashtags #ImStillWithHer and #NotMyPresident both trending. Many Trump supporters went with #PresidentTrump, but it seems like many stuck with two popular hashtags from the campaign #MAGA and #DrainTheSwamp. Twitter hashtags give people the opportunity to be part of a community, but as we have seen, there is also the opportunity to experience hate, so there are pros and cons.
Trump won.
Hate won.
Fear won.
Racism won.
Sexism won.
Homophobia won.
Prejedice won.
Self interest won.
Congratulations USA.#ElectionNight— cara (@Caraharrison679) November 9, 2016
I honestly can't believe it. I haven't felt this sad and scared for our country since the towers fell. #ElectionNight #notmypresident
— Kate Cobb (@Ktphone) November 9, 2016
The saddest photo I've seen today. 💔🗽 #PrayforUSA #PrayForTheWorld #trump #electionnight #ElectionFinalThoughts #election2016 pic.twitter.com/2ZSdCJoHoA
— TheGuyThatPrints© (@Moouxe) November 9, 2016
Congratulations And Thank You So Much Mr. Trump
For Doing This For Our Country🇺🇸🇺🇸#ElectionNight #ForeverGrateful @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/Bam9vU8rto— Clinton (@2ALAW) November 9, 2016
Never have I ever been so proud of my state, my country, and my party! We did it guys! #MAGA #ElectionNight #PresidentTrump #PRESTRUMP
— Deplorable Aaron 🐸 (@GopAaron) November 9, 2016
Today is a great day for America. It's time to fix the damage left from decades of corrupt politicians #ElectionNight #draintheswamp #Trump
— Sam Booth (@sambooth900) November 9, 2016
Hey Paul. The hashtags you mentioned definitely helped drive the commentary of the election. I think Twitter played a huge part that night. Regardless of what political party people may associate with, tweeting about the election was very important. Good analysis!