Asses the importance of the ethnic minority vote in the US political system The political system within the US consists of two parties; Democrats and Republicans. Whilst the Democrats conventionally gain the vote of the worse off citizens, the Republicans achieve the vote of the better off citizens; nevertheless, neither party are oblivious of the importance of the ethnic minorities. In 2008 Blacks voted at higher levels than they ever had in any other Presidential Election. Black voter turnout averages between 5% and 10% below that of the White voter turnout. Many Blacks doubt the political system has any value for them.
Also it is criticised for the fact the in recent times no government has obtained 50% of the votes cast. Both of these statements are backed up by the result of the 2005 general election where Labour won 35.6% of the votes but 56.1% of the seats. In that same election the Liberal Democrats won 22% of the votes but only 9% of the seats. On top of these criticisms votes for small parties are often wasted. As shown in 2010 where in the general election the Green and other small parties combined achieved 7.9% of the votes but the Green party was the only one of these parties to gain a seat and they only won one seat.
How did Obama beat Clinton to the democratic nomination? When the little known US Senator for Illinois announced his intentions to run in the democratic presidential primary in 2007, few believed that he could defeat the party backed establishment candidate, Hilary Clinton. Clinton’s campaign was described as “the largest and most powerful presidential campaign in History” and although Obama himself was quietly confident, his early investors were sceptical as Clinton gained an early twenty point lead. So how was he able to turn things around? Obama had three key factors on his side.
In the Obama vs. McCain election of 2012, Obama’s victory was strengthened by the fact that there was a much higher turnout of the young voters and voters that are parts of minority groups. Whereas, a great amount of Republican voters abstained for different reasons. This is a practical example of Differential Abstention and how it can affect general elections. To conclude, it can be shown that differential abstention can play a large part in who will win in any election, as shown by Obama in 2008. There are many reasons as to why people abstain from voting, starting from it being too cold outside and ranging to people not bothering to go out and
This defeat was not a normal defeat as it is known as the “stolen election”. It is referred as this because Jackson won a huge amount of votes but unfortunately he did not have the electoral votes he needed to gain presidency. This meant that now the House of Representatives would be deciding the faith of the election. The outcome of this election was defeat for Jackson however as previously mentioned Jackson was victorious in the 1828 elections winning the majority of the votes and beating Adams. Jackson was quite unlike any other president of the United States.
After 3 months, Clinton finally sent in aid and troops, yet faced a mass amount of criticisms for their non-response to the genocide, as his actions were deemed ‘too little, too late’. These two international policy failures were important as it made Clinton appear to be indecisive in international issues, making him a dovish President and as a result of this, the president’s disapproval ratings raised to 49% from 38% at the beginning of the year, highlighting his inexperience and weakness as a President. On the other hand, Clinton did have some international policy successes, most notably through
HINDENBURG The majority of Germans still feared Hitler. Hindenburg won the 1932 election with a clear majority. The NAZI's after Hitler's April 1932 election loss to Hindenburg were still the largest German political party, but did not have a majority in the Reichstag Paul von Hindenburg was 85 years old at the time -- old, tired, and some might say senile. He was likely not fully rational or in control of his faculties, and heavily dependent on advisers, who increasingly favoured the Nazis as the only alternative to the "chaos and anarchy" of the socialists and communists. The middle class had given Hitler a considerable amount of both
The current First Past the Post system leads to an unfair system of representation. For example, in the 2010 general elections, although the Conservative party gained 36% of the vote they ended up receiving 47% of the seats in the House of Commons. For this reason, smaller parties such as the Liberal Democrats do the worse out of this system. In the same elections, although they gained 23% of the vote they only got 9% of the seats. This is one reason that the Westminster electoral system is in need of reform- proportional systems deliver a much more representable result which is more democratic and means that all votes have the same value.
Francisco Ibarra Govt II December 1, 2009 Americans and Elections As we know, presidential elections tend to have a certain amount of attraction even if you don’t really care for politics. The media always tries to put their own spin on it so it makes it look more enticing for people to see it and in turn they get ratings. The 2000 election was one of the closest elections seen, where George W. Bush beat Al Gore by a margin of less than one percent in the electoral votes. Many people believe that it was a mistake, Al Gore should have won. Four years down the road, its time to elect another president or re-elect the current one if he was a good choice before.
Well, besides what has already been mentioned, it was based largely on higher black turnout, a bigger Hispanic vote, big numbers among younger voters and first-time voters, and more support from independents. Additionally, the 2008 exit poll found far more Democrats turned out than Republicans. In the exit poll four years ago, self-identified Democrats and Republicans each constituted 37 percent of the sample, but this year 39 percent of voters were Democrats compared with 32 percent of Republicans. Fewer Republican voters meant fewer votes for McCain (Election Results 2008). So, it appears that 2008 election was not one of ideological, or “political cultural,” change, but one merely of circumstances – circumstances that left a nation yearning for a change; a change in party, a change in views, and a change in presidential persona.