Exam Two Lanahan Readings Flashcards
Jacobs & Shapiro, “Politician Don’t Pander”
- According to the authors politicians don’t pander meaning that they don’t always shape public policy to the wants of the public. Commentators and the American public were shocked by the Republicans drive to remove Clinton from office in clear public opposition. The impeachment spectacle reveals the widening gulf between politicians’ policy decisions and the preferences of the American people toward specific issues. This is a trend of declining responsiveness to the public’s policy preferences.
- If politicians aren’t pandering then they are disregarding public opinion in favor for their own policy goals. They do this by tracking public opinion and crafting their words to win support
- The press focuses on political conflict and strategy because these are visible and genuine features of contemporary American politics. The combination of politicians’ staged displays and the media’s scrutiny of the motives behind them produced public distrust and fear of major government reform efforts.
- The end result of the dynamic between policymaking, media coverage, and public opinion is that first the polarization of political elites and their strategies to manipulate the media and gain public support have prompted the press to emphasize political conflict at the expense of policy issues. Second, it prevents reformers from changing public policy. Thirdly, the cycle closes as the media’s coverage and the public’s reaction that was initially sparked by politicians’ actions feed back into the political arena.
Skinner, “More Than Money”
Skinner is trying to convey that while expertise is necessary to use the other resources effectively, and money and membership are needed to build expertise, expertise is still separate and distinct resource. Interest groups have knowledge about their specific issues, their ability to locate voters who believe a particular issue to be important,and their skill in helping to run campaigns. Interest groups can employ issue credibility, targeting voters, targeting race, and campaign service to win elections. Parties aggregate voters; groups disaggregate them. Parties serve to counteract the inegalitarian biases of the American system; groups exacerbate them. However there is a growing alliance between political parties and interest groups due to the polarization of political parties. People are starting to see more interest groups leaning towards parties.
Kaiser, “So Damn Much Money”
Lobbyists were present at the first session of the first Congress when it convened in NYC in 1789, in the persons of wealthy NY merchants eager to delay congressional action on a tariff bill they thought would cost them money. Cassidy & Associates was the first lobbying firm that tried to go public by selling shares on the stock exchange. Lobbying Congress was not an important part of the company’s repertoire until it began gaining multiple clients who began writing hefty checks to the firm in order to fulfill their ambitions. Cassidy and Schlossberg began to find little loopholes in legislation that allowed for more money to be pumped into multiple projects, including having facilities built for their clients. These legislative provisions, known as earmarks, became very common and were seen as a way to acquire federal funds to keep the lobbying firm’s clients happy. And little to most people’s knowledge, “extracting money and other benefits from the federal government for ones state or district has been apart of the nob for as long as there has been a Congress”. Cassidy soon began suggesting to his clients to set up political action committees (PACs) to direct campaign money to politicians in exchange for legislation that positively affects the clients. The lobbying business began growing because of the benefits lobbyists were gaining for their clients from politicians who were realizing that they needed increasing amounts of money for their campaigns to keep them in office. Other firms formed and quickly jumped on board and soon Cassidy and Schlossberg began to lose clients, money, power, and influence. Their rise to power was swift and their profitability was not only stable, but constantly rising until other firms began to take their clients.
Johnson, “No Place for Amateurs”
Political consultants play an important role in the ballot measures by helping clients determine ballot strategy, framing issues, and even providing the campaign foot soldiers who gather signatures for ballot petitions. Campaign professionals are needed to bring order out of chaos, maintain message and strategy discipline, and keep the campaign focused. The best consultants can define the race on their own terms. In the end, the campaign boils down to letting the voters know who the candidate is, what the issues are, and why this race is important. The impact of this reality is that political consultants have become indispensable players in modern campaigns. Candidates will not hesitate to raise large sums of campaign funds to pay for professional consultants and their services.
Mark, “Going Dirty”
Negative campaigning has been apart of history for a long time. Lyndon Johnson’s “Daisy Girl” ad against Barry Goldwater reminded the audience of Goldwater’s propensity for warlike statements. Many dislike negative campaigning because they say it diminishes the level of political discourse and intensifies the divisions among voters. Negative campaign tactics have been constantly reinvented to adapt to the latest technologies and to fit the prevailing mood of the electorate during different eras of American history. The ability to post such controversial ads on the Internet and send them by email had increased their visibility exponentially.
527’s groups first appeared in the 2004 election, in response to changes in campaign finance law. In place of spending, private 527s appeared, and were independent of campaigns and therefore could spend whatever “soft money” amount they wanted, on whatever they wanted: negative ads were their contribution of choice.
Campbell, “Why We Vote”
According to Campbell we vote because of two reasons. Either for self-interest or because we feel that we have an obligation to vote. Voting can also be instilled depending on how the individual was brought up. If they grew up in a community that voting is common.In some communities more voters come to the polls in order to protect their interests, whereas in other places more of them cast a ballot because they feel it is their duty to do so. This is important to know because it helps us trace how voter turnout is going be. Political homogeneity produces high voter turnout, whereas heterogeneity reduces civic engagement.Voter turnout is high in place characterized by political heterogeneity. Therefore, living in different places has different consequences for participation.
Winograd & Hais, “Millennial Makeover”
Millennials are different than other voters because they bring with them a facility and comfort with cutting-edge communication and computing technologies. The Millennial Generation is larger than any that has come before it and most ethnically diverse generation in American history.
The millennial generation are more positive and they show a high tolerance for lifestyle and ethnic differences and support for an activist approach by governmental and societal and economic issues.
Brownstein, “The Second Civil War”
The Democratic and Republican party have polarized immensely over the years to the point where it’s could be like ‘The second Civil War’. Both political parties only feel comfortable in advancing ideas acceptable to their core supporters–which is their base. Each party seeks to impose its’ will on the other party and recoil from actions that might challenge its’ core supporters, therefore they can’t propose proper solutions for the many problems America still faces. America now experiences hyper partisanship which is the polarization where political parties are on opposite positions and are in disagreements.American today is sincerely divided over the role of government in the economy, foreign policy, and in cultural and social issues.
Zernike, “Boiling Mad”
The Tea Party originated because they fulfilled a need in a number of American citizens that believed the government was overlooking them. In 2010, Rand Paul brought together the Tea Party when he ran for Senate. He was a choice for Americans that wanted something more anti-government. They wanted limited government, fiscal responsibility, and free markets. The movement is “boiling mad” because they are upset with the current government and how things are going. They want the government and Republicans to be reckoned.
Sabato, “Feeding Frenzy”
A feeding frenzy is when the press is attending a political event where a critical mass of journalists leap to cover the same embarrassing or scandalous subject and pursue it intensely, often excessively, and sometimes uncontrollably like a shark. The consequence of feeding frenzies are that it discourages candidates to run for an office.They don’t want to be subject to gossip or intrusiveness in their, or family’s, lives. Another consequence is that it promotes conformity, homogeneity, and formulaic reporting. The press are devoted to finding variations on a theme.
Mutz, “How the Mass Media Divide Us”
Mass media divides us by highlighting more emotionally extreme and less polite expressions of opinion, and research suggests that these expressions of incivility may have important consequences for attitudes towards the opposition. Uncivil discourse increases polarization by helping partisans think even less of their opponents than they already did. The consequences of this behaviour is that it lowers the scope in which individuals look at politics. Even though many are disgusted by the uncivil events they can’t help but watch it, therefore promoting even more of it.
