In 2008, many Republicans believed that Democratic Candidate Barack Obama was either secretly born in Africa, or hiding his Muslim faith. In 2012, the then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid claimed that Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney didn’t pay taxes and was concealing that fact from an unsuspecting public. Some amount of conspiracy theorizing will always be present in our politics, and all presidential elections feature conspiracy theories. This is in part because they want to avoid losing, and in part because they believe the other side is crooked enough to cheat. When there is a potential for loss, people will turn to conspiracy theories. ![]() Presidential campaigns often elevate conspiracy theories in the public discourse because real things are at stake in elections. ![]() Polls suggest that all Americans believe at least one conspiracy theory most people believe in a few. Regardless of their strained relationship with truth, they are a staple of politics. He argues that the prominence of conspiracy theories in this year’s election can be partly explained by the popularity of anti-establishment candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, who have both engaged heavily in conspiracy theorizing during their campaigns.Ĭonspiracy theories are unsubstantiated claims that might or might not be true. ![]() Uscinski writes that while some amount of conspiracy theorizing will always be present in our politics, they now dominate all aspects of the 2016 campaign discourse. The popularity of Donald Trump in the 2016 race has also seen the elevation of conspiracy theories to the forefront of the public consciousness.
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