
The competition of each consecutive presidential election is growing. It is the hard, undeniable fact that as technology and social media become easier and easier for people to obtain, people get a more hands on feel for the election. Because of these technological advancements, the images people now associate with each candidate are those in which they have probably seen through social media. However, through history, one form of political influence through images that has remained is political cartoons. Political cartoons are many times used as images drawn by authors as a form of propaganda in order to support or publicize the efforts of a single candidate in an election. In the political cartoons illustrated by the artists: Tom Stiglich, Michael Ramierz, and Darrin Bell, close analyzation shows that there is a different bias towards one of the candidates in each picture of the 2016 presidential election. In political cartoons, there are specific hints, whether large or small, which generally show the outright support in favor of one candidate and often attack the efforts of another. However, though these three artists support three different candidates, they all use irony to build support for their candidate.

In the frame encompassing a woman crossed out inside a red circle, illustrated by Tom Stiglich, the negative image and link to Donald Trump through text displays bias towards the support of Hillary Clinton. To begin, the typical universal image for a woman is generally thought to be drawn as having a slender body in proportion to the head. However, in this image the woman is purposefully depicted as being larger in order to draw a negative association between Donald Trump and larger women. We know this is the case because there is no explanation to the image as to why a woman would be crossed out, but in the text below, it says, “This message brought to you by Donald Trump for President” (Stiglich). The way this image portrays bias towards Hillary Clinton without outright saying it is through creating a negative connotation associated with Donald Trump for anyone who sees the image. The image particularly targets the sector of larger women voters through creating a sense of danger in the red circle which may dissuade voters from Donald Trump, given that red is generally associated with danger in American culture. The main takeaway from this image is that it does not show support directly towards Hillary Clinton through the text presented, but rather gives support to Hillary Clinton through the dissuasion of Donald Trump in the text. 

Similar to the image in support of Hillary Clinton, Michael Ramierz depicts Hillary Clinton on a coin with ironic text, displaying a bias towards the support of Donald Trump. On the coin, the propaganda for Donald Trump is trying to ensue that Hillary Clinton is a liar by making a Pinocchio reference. In American culture, Pinocchio is a boy whose nose grows every time he lies, and the bias for Donald Trump is trying to make this lying connection with Hillary Clinton because the growing nose is so iconic in American society. By making this connection, the author establishes a sense in which we must not trust Hillary Clinton. However, the ironic part of this image is that after establishing this mistrust in Hillary Clinton, the author puts on the coin, “In Hillary we Trust” (Ramirez). The intention of the image is to not show the actual support for Hillary Clinton, but to ironically show why you should not support Hillary, just as the previous political cartoon did for Donald Trump. The irony in this image tries to motivate those into why they should not vote for Hillary. 

Likewise to both Ramierz’s and Stiglich’s cartoons, the political cartoon by Darrin Bell displaying a scale of different kinds of supporters in the race for the Democratic nomination portrays a bias towards Bernie Sanders by the text and labeling he puts on each individual. The image begins by showing the right side of the scale filled with many Bernie supporters, and the left side filled with few Hillary supporters. The side with fewer Hillary supporters outweighs the side with many Bernie Supporters which sets the argument for the idea of the picture. The point of this image is to show how many more people who are active on social media support Bernie Sanders rather than Hillary Clinton. This image displays irony because the pundits who support Hillary Clinton heavily outweigh the social media side of the scale, though there are so many more people on the Bernie supporter social media side of the scale. It is also ironic in a sense that the idea of the image displays Bernie having more supporters on social media compared Hillary though she is winning the race. The scale represents through the text, “the media scale,” and the experts, or pundits, show how the true results of Democratic candidate supporters support Hillary rather than Bernie. The bias represented is shown in how the “majority” of people are saying Bernie won in the larger end of the scale, though it is not true because the scale is still being outweighed by the real results. Once again, it is ironic that there are so many more people saying Bernie won on social media, giving a large bias in this political cartoon towards the support of Bernie Sanders. 

In the political cartoons displayed, the text in each image portrays an ironic atmosphere giving bias towards the support of one of the candidates. The common theme within each political cartoon is that the support for who the cartoon is supporting is not stated, but rather assumed through the irony in the text of each image. In the images, the most important part is not what is said, but rather what is not said. An important connection from all of these cartoons with political agendas is that everything has an underlying meaning, it just needs to be found. 
