Technology Innovations Have Driven 21st-Century Presidential Elections

If you want to win in a presidential election, you have the advantage if you can innovate, whether through enhanced methods of communication, changes in the “standard politician” personality, or bringing in outside influencers). This trend began with Abraham Lincoln and continued in the 20th century. However, we haven’t stagnated since then. Moving further away from the Cold War that dominated the late 20th century and into “modern” political machinations, we continue to see multiple innovations through the election cycles.

Bill Clinton, the first of the post-Cold War presidents, took Reagan’s lessons—humanizing himself with wit and charm—one step further. He not only humanized himself to voters on the campaign trail and during official election functions, but he was able to show his personality in non-political settings. Perhaps the most well-known moment of the 1992 election was Bill Clinton, sunglasses on, playing “Heartbreak Hotel” on a saxophone at the Arsenio Hall talk show. Clinton’s insertion of himself into the pop culture zeitgeist endeared him to younger voters and exposed him to those not as politically inclined, a tremendous lesson for…