Are They Really Watching?

The focus of government in the third trimester has greatly widened my knowledge of the United States democracy and the components that make our government work smoothly.  Class activities have helped enrich my understanding as a student because when I research and do the work to find information about a subject myself, I seem to grasp the information better and enjoy it.  Interactive tasks such as topical debates centered around the Constitution, reading and questioning of Government representation and the research of presidential campaigns/voting polls have all helped me understand the depth of our government.

In trimester three I enjoyed the project concerning presidential campaign commercials the most.  According to television producer and Nixon campaign consultant Roger Ailes in 1968, the purpose of Presidential campaigns is to gain beneficial exposure to the public.  He said, “Television is no gimmick, and nobody will ever be elected to major office again without presenting themselves well on it.”

The investigation of techniques used in these interested me because I had never been forced to ponder over the skills necessary to execute a successful ad before.  Broadly speaking, this is an example of how the class exercises have led me to become involved and informed about various aspects of government.  I think the reason that the presidential ads were one of the most exciting parts of all the assignments for me is because I have seen many political ads on TV at home throughout the years; however, I had never thought twice about the underlying meaning and purpose of the content in each one.  As I worked on the project, viewing the political commercials of Nixon vs. McGovern and Bush vs. Gore, I realized that the use of persuasion seemed to be the most important of them all.  As said by our 16th President, “When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted.” –Abraham Lincoln.  The quote helps me understand that in politics that the motive of persuasion is important among people in order to help them understand issues and develop ideas about what they desire.  This relates to the assignment of Presidential Campaign commercials as I had found numerous examples of effective persuasion in each.  After all, the purpose of the ads is to draw voters nearer to believing what they want them to believe… this, the definition of persuasion.

This long time push for Presidential campaign commercials doesn’t always receive positive feedback from viewers.  After researching and reading various polls such as this one shown below, it makes me more interested in trying to decipher what makes a good, effective ad.  

This poll shows that people tend to believe positively charged commercials more than negatively ones.  When I was viewing my assigned commercials during a class activity, I noticed 2 of the 3 were favorable support for the direct candidate, not solely targeting their opponent.  After researching, I  found that positive persuasion is one of the most important factors of a successful political campaign because after all, it is the public’s view that decides whether the ad is successful or not.   I personally agree with this poll and the studies that show that commercials and ads that encourage the presidential candidate are more uplifting and believable.  Positively charged commercials seem to have an aura that promotes success, and this is what is memorable for viewers.  At the end of the day it is viewers like you and I, who determine whether a campaign commercial has achieved their purpose: grasping the attention and support of the voter watching.

The Truth about Presidential Elections

During the course of my third trimester of Government class, I have learned many new things about the roles and processes that take place in our government. The most interesting topic, in my opinion, has been the process of a presidential election. I had always wondered how somebody can become a United States President and hold the most powerful position in the world. I always thought that the president was decided by who ever had the highest amount of votes from the American people, but then I learned the truth about presidential elections. I learned that winning just the overall popular vote doesn’t always guarantee a spot in the Whitehouse; it is a little bit more complicated than that.

Presidential elections aren’t won through the popular vote, they’re actually won through electoral college votes. Each state has a different number of electoral college votes and they are all used on which ever candidate wins the popular vote in that state alone. Before any ballots are ever cast, Presidential campaigns have to identify potential states that they feel they can win in. For example, if the candidate that is running for President is a Republican then he can pretty guarantee to win the vote in Texas because it has been a very Republican based state for a long time. However, for a state like Colorado it is unclear which part will win the vote because the state has a long history of voting pretty evenly for either party. It isn’t very predictable which party they may vote for in the election, and that is why most people would call Colorado a swing state. Swing states are often the deciding factor in whether or not a candidate wins the election. In one of our classes, we simulated the job of presidential campaigners that had to identify which states would vote Democrat and Republican. The activity helped me figure out why candidates may target certain states more than others. This video can help further expand on the importance of swing states on presidential elections. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFmIbrPWJ1g

Another thing I found to be interesting while covering the topic of presidential elections is the role of the Electoral College. I found out that each state has a different number of Electoral College votes, which ultimately decides who wins the Presidential nomination. The number of electoral votes for each state is equal to the number of senators plus the number of House Representatives. In the 2012 Election,California has the highest number of electoral votes with 55, and Texas has the second most votes with 38. To finish the activity earlier mentioned, we had to add up the number of votes for states that we predicted to vote Republican and Democrat. The blue states are Democratic, the red states are Republican, and the tan states are swing states.

In order to use the simulator yourself you can go to www.270towin.com

The activities we did in class really helped me to find out how presidential elections really happen and how they develop their strategies for the campaigns. I definitely think it was an important topic for the whole class to learn, especially to educate young future votes. I recommend continuing this activity in future classes because I feel that it was very effective and gave essential information for the young adults in our classroom.

Tweeting His Way to the Top

According to our Founding Fathers, the presidency is primarily a check on the powers of the other two branches of government and the military. The first clause of article two of the Constitution declares “the executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” They assigned the role of the president to be the head of the executive branch, not the sole leader of our country. So, if the Constitution does not give presidents as much power as they seem to have, then how have they become such central figures in American government?

In class, we have recently discussed Richard Neustadt’s idea of presidential informal power. In the White House, Neustadt argues “[The President’s] strength or weakness, then, turns on his personal capacity to influence the conduct of the men who make up government.” Essentially, modern presidents derive their power from their ability to influence others, particularly politicians, rather than directly from the Constitution. In today’s modern world of technology, the Internet has become an essential part in a president’s informal power. For example, President Obama uses social media sites as an outlet to impose his beliefs among people around the nation, specifically Twitter.

Twitter is growing in numbers everyday; since its debut in 2006, over 175 million users have joined in the tweeting, re-tweeting, following and favoriting (http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/just-how-many-active-twitter-users-are-there-124121). Our government class has been using Twitter along with millions of people in order to discuss and learn about political processes and recent happenings in the 2012 election. We can even view the tweets of prominent politicians, including President Obama along with a team of tweeters that help manage his account. Through his Twitter account, President Obama is able to practice his informal strength by promoting his campaign, success and ideas in a variety of tweets. To follow the President on Twitter, click the following link: http://twitter.com/#!/BARACKOBAMA.

Obama’s followers can find any information about the President and his campaign simply by viewing his tweets. Looking at the most recent tweet from the four above, Obama tweets often to let his followers know how they can get involved in his campaign, for example linking them to sign up sites for his campaign rallies. By gathering more supporters via Twitter, Obama’s capacity to influence, or his informal power, grows even larger.

In the second most recent tweet, Obama posted about the newfound success of Chrysler, a business that found its way during his time as President. When any American business improves, regardless of its importance, it indicates economic growth. Obama tweeting about the minor growth of success in America on his hand may positively impact people’s impression of President Obama. Without expressly writing that the American economy is improving on his watch, he still allows people to think that perhaps he is helping its growth with small steps.

Often times, politicians use Twitter to criticize policies and proposals of other politicians, and this can certainly get heated in the midst of a Presidential Election. Becuase Mitt Romney will most likely pull ahead as the final GOP candidate, he is Obama’s direct target in attack campaign videos, ads and tweets. Twitter is an ideal form of attack, simply because he can link out to videos or external links that support his reasoning as to why Romney is the wrong choice, and millions will see it. However, Obama must keep in mind that negative publicity will also come his way from other candidates. Attacks can be very harsh, but it’s all part of politics.

Finally, Obama is able to directly interact with American citizens and gather their opinions on new bills and policies through Twitter. He can summarize it in a brief tweet and watch the replies roll in, collecting immediate feedback in order to give Americans precisely what they want.

Many of Obama’s critics say that he is far too wrapped up in media involvement, and that it has resulted in an unfair balance of coverage between him and other Republican candidates in the 2012 election. However, why would the President not use this deemed “love affair” to his advantage? If he is able to ramp up his power through the Internet, or even the television and radio, why wouldn’t he seize the opportunity to do so? Modern times call for a change in political approach; it is an undeniable fact that the media now plays a large role in politics. If the media wants to follow President Obama around while he has them wrapped around his finger, he should continue to utilize his power over media in order to display his informal powers.

The ability to use sites like Twitter in order to hype up presidential informal powers of influence and persuasion has made a tremendous impact politics, and should certainly call for an interesting 2012 Presidential Election. President Obama will continue to use Twitter as an avenue to connect to citizens, gather support and possibly influence people to see his side of things. I personally believe that Twitter is an excellent way to share and spread ideas considering the Internet is one of, if not the primary form of communication today. We must share ideas to keep the general community informed of important news, interesting articles and controversial moments in the world, and it’s easy to share things on Twitter. After all, very powerful things can be stated in a mere 140 characters or less.

Third Party Problems

This year in government we have learned many helpful and interesting things. My knowledge about government has increased greatly and in the process it has been fun. We have learned a lot during the past two trimesters from talking about the Declaration of Independence all the way to now where we are studying the Presidency. We have used technology in every class and I feel that this being incorporated in our curriculum has greatly helped me learn and made the process interesting. There have been plenty of interesting things that we have done during the past two trimesters but the thing that I remember most and enjoyed the most was doing the topical debate on whether or not we need a third political party.  

During our second round of topical debates my group was assigned the topic of whether or not there should be a third political party. This topic lead to a great discussion between the two opposing groups. Both sides took turns expressing their point of view on the matter and then the rest of the class listened and in the end voted for who was more persuasive. This exercise was very helpful because we learned a great deal about political parties and also learned greatly by listening in on the other debate topics. The process of actually having to research your topic and know what you were going to say allowed you to easily learn the topic at hand. Also the ability to listen in on other debates was great because it allowed us to understand their topics because they were forced to present it in a way that persuaded you.

I enjoyed the learning about whether or not we needed a third political party because it was something that is discussed in modern day and all throughout history. We started out by just researching about political parties and I gained more interest the deeper in research we got. We learned about why just having two parties is good rather than adding another. I learned that adding another party could mess up how the American party system works.  Most of the third parties specify on certain beliefs but share most of their beliefs with one of the major parties.  On usgovinfo.about.com all of the major third parties are explained.  Once you closely examine all of the parties you will realize none of these parties could defeat the major parties.  This means that all the third parties are doing are taking away votes from the major parties if they were made in to major parties.  The picture included below shows how very few people support a third party and that in now way will it ever be able to compete with the other two major parties.  All of the things that I learned about this were very interesting to me because of the fact that it was something that is so big in America. While it is evident most people are with one party or hates the other, these two parties are what keep the government flowing and functioning the way it should.  

The topical debate of whether or not we need a third political party was defiantly my favorite thing that we did this year.  While it was not the traditional way of learning I feel this may be one of the things that I learned the most from.  This activity was also helpful in understanding what the parties stand for and their main functions for the country.  I enjoyed this activity very much and now have a great understanding on why the two political parties for the United States is perfect.

…And How are we Represented Again?!

The complex election process is fascinating because there are so many factors that can change the outcome of the election. Usually in a democracy, the people get to choose their representative but in the United States, we choose representatives that then choose the elector and make the decisions. Democracy gives all people a voice even if they do not have a direct say in the process. However, the candidates must jump through a series of hoops to become president and probably one of the most dificult hoops has the most impact on the outcome: the Electoral College.

A confusing part of the election process for most is the Electoral College system, which entitles a representative to cast their ‘pledged vote’ for a specific candidate. Meaning that even if a candidate wins the popular vote, it does not necessarily mean that they will win the electoral votes.Every state gets a number of electors equal to the number of Representatives. Due to the fact that each state elects the electors based on their population and individual states have more say in the outcome of the election rather than individuals. The Electoral College system has its opposers and supporters and each believe that there is only one way to represent the American population either through direct democracy or partial democracy.

Supporters of the Electoral College system argue that it is best to not have the popular vote dictate the outcome of elections because people only want to satisfy what they want at the moment rather than thinking about the future. The opposers argue that it does not satisfy the majority of the country and it defeats the purpose of a democracy if the people do not have a say in the election. However, the Electoral College is the system that America follows regardless if the popular candidate wins or not. Usually the President who win the electoral votes may have a higher satisfaction rate and therefore, I believe that the electoral college should be untampered with unless it would be to remove any unpartisan bias. The Electoral ensures the voter’s confidence in their candidate if he/she is  supported by a group of highly-qualified officials thinking only about the future of the country.

The election process is a controversial one, but in the end most of the presidents receive a high approval rating so there must be some valor in the efforts and the outcome of the electoral college.

How Far Will They Go?: Manipulation in the 2012 Election

http://ryking.tumblr.com/page/4

Studying campaign commercials this trimester really peaked my interest.  In a world where technology rules, media is extremely important.  For an election, media is even more important because it can make a candidate look great or make their supporters doubt whether they still intend on being a supporter.  Campaign commercials and other types of media have always been crucial within the election, but in recent years, since technology has become more relevant, these commercials have gained so much power that they could potentially make or break a candidate’s career. In the 2012 election, vital candidates such as Obama, Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich have used the power in the media to bring themselves up while tearing their opponents down.  This, in theory, seems be fine, it’s a competition after all, but the way that some candidates do this is by manipulation.  Candidates can manipulate in many ways, but, ultimately, there are two ways of manipulating in the media: twisting around and placing opponents’ words into different context and omission.

The first way of manipulation in the media is twisting around the words of opponents and placing them into different context.  Basically, candidates will take a piece of what an opponent said and use it to their advantage.  An example of this is Mitt Romney twisting around the words of Barack Obama saying, “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose”.  Romney is attempting to manipulate the citizens of New Hampshire by saying that Obama was “trying to distract us from what matters” (http://adage.com/article/campaign-trail/mitt-romney-ad-twists-obama-s-words-works/231147/).  Later, it was discovered that Obama was actually quoting John McCain.  Romney took this quote completely out of context because the actual quote by Obama was, “Senator McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose’”.  The problem with this, besides the obvious twisting of words, is that the public is not going to go look back on each quote by each candidate, they are just going to hear what they want to hear and believe what they want to believe.  Romney’s manipulation here may have actually played a part in helping him become the front-runner of the Republican Party.

http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/feb/12/mitt-cant-bridge-the-gaffe/

An example of omitting the complete truth is Rick Santorum’s campaign commercial that seems to be about Obama and his faults but ends up being about Romney and his.  The narrator says that Romney’s “big government-mandating health care included $50 abortions”.  This is referring to the state health care law signed by Romney.  It said nothing about abortion when he signed it.  Later the Commonwealth Connector was forced, by a Supreme Court ruling in 1981 that “women eligible for Medicaid had a state constitutional right to payments for medically necessary abortions” (http://factcheck.org/2012/04/deja-vu-the-latest-attacks-from-santorum/).  Again in 1997, the state high court ruled that Massachusetts “must cover medically necessary abortions if it covers other medically necessary care, such as childbirth”.  Later, the ad claims that Romney “supported radical environmental job-killing cap and trade”.  Many years ago, when Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he had the idea of a regional cap-and-trade system for the Northeast, but then decided to drop the idea completely.  Romney clears up the situation by saying that he does not believe in the cap-and-trade program, that it doesn’t make sense for Americans to “spend trillions of dollars to somehow stop global warming”.  He said that Americans will lose jobs and that it just wouldn’t be successful because “energy intensive” industries will “just get up and go somewhere else”.  But, again, this manipulation in the media completely threw everyone into frenzy, causing them to look away from one candidate and into the dirty little secrets of others.

The easy-access to media has completely changed all presidential campaigns.  Because of this easy-access, candidates have been forced to take media and tend it to their needs.  Candidates have been forced to use the media in any and all ways that help their campaign.  To do this, some candidates turn to the positives aspects of themselves, but, more often than not, candidates use the media to show a negative side to their opponents, and when there isn’t a negative side, or they cant find it; they will turn to lying as a way to make sure that there is a negative aspect.  They know it will be seen as negative because they, basically, created it themselves by molding it and warping the truth to look and sound the way that they want it to.

Wondering how much of what you hear is true? Check out factcheck.org!