Assess the importance of TV debates in US presidential elections [15] Many critics of TV debates would argue that they are not greatly important. Contemporary commentators now argue that presidential debates, since their conception have had any serious impact on the outcome of any election. For many of the general population, the debates will have very little effect because they think that hours of dialogue does not make for good TV, a key example of this is John Kerry who was widely regarded as having won all three of his debates in 2004 against George W Bush but did not receive a bump in opinion polls. Another remarkable factor of the presidential TV debates is how news outlets and the media have a tendency to highlight a specific moment, often a gaffe, and make this the top story, such as George HW Bush repeatedly looking at his watch making him appear bored or as if his time was more important elsewhere. All the debates offer is an opportunity to see a President laid bare without the constant media spin and give the American public an opportunity to decide what to focus on.
These statistics show that ethnic minorities have made up the majority of additional voters, presenting the importance of ethnic minorities in the US political system. In 2000 Whites had the highest registration rates with 72% of Whites registered to vote. Although Black registration rates did increase by 4 percentage points, Black registration was still lower than Whites at 68%. Hispanic registration rates were lower still at 57% and remained unchanged from the 1996 Presidential Election. API registration rates went down from 1996 to 2000 by 5%
Some family-based immigrants may be highly educated or skilled, but the vast majority of admissions are made without regard for those criteria. The immigrant population reflects the system's lack of emphasis on skill. Nearly 31 percent of foreign-born residents over the age of 25 are without a high school diploma, compared to just 10 percent of native-born citizens. Immigrants trail natives in rates of college attendance, associate's degrees, and bachelor's degrees, but earn advanced degrees at a slightly higher rate (10.9 percent, compared to 10.4 percent for natives). Illegal immigrants are the least-educated group, with nearly 75 percent having at most a high school education.
According the POWER inquiry, which took place in 2007; this was due to the fact that the general public thought that even if they did vote, choices will be made regardless of what they wanted. They also saw voting for a particular constituency was a vote wasted, many people said they ‘may well have voted’ if their party of choice had a chance of winning. Many members of the public said that they couldn’t decide who to vote for as they agreed with a few of a party’s policy and not others. The second way in which political participation had decreased is through party membership. In 1080 there was 4.12% of the total electorate who were members of a political party.
This also confirms with my knowledge in the fact that the conservative leaders were opposed to the women suffrage due to the fact that it would have meant them having to change their ethos, conservative never mentioned allowing women the right to vote in their manifestos. They did not mention this in their manifestos as this would of have meant that they would of lost out on votes for them to become the main party in government, and therefore did not really mention women’s suffrage, but they did oppose it. The leaders did not really mention women’s suffrage because of the fact the backbenchers would of have really opposed their leaders and therefore the party would of have become split and therefore not a strong party. Not only this but the leaders did not mention the women’s suffrage because the house of lords opposed it, meaning that the conservative party would of have been looked down on rather then looked up on by the house of lords if they had mentioned / forwarded the
These politicians justify their actions by saying they are performing the people’s will because the people voted for them, thus the people support everything that politician does. The reality is most people don’t vote and those that do may be single issue voters, ignorant voters or full-fledged party backers. But, it is misleading at best to claim anyone has a political mandate to pass bad legislation. Regardless of the issue or one’s position it would be impossible to say that an apathetic voting populous, largely ignorant on the individual issue at hand took a stand on election day by voting for one party or by not voting at all and thus, providing a
A majority of this nation does not support mandatory voting in this country. Congress should not pass this bill because America simply does not want to be forced to vote. Mandatory voting will cause ignorant voting. The government is silly to think that mandatory voting will cause the people to increase their attention to politics. Not every citizen will have a political interest for each election or knowledge of the ongoing election.
Are younger voters as careless, as they are often accused of being? Every year older voters discuss the apparent lack of concern of younger voters regarding politics, government and world events. Rather than pointing the blame towards one specific group of people, such as the younger individuals that have reached the voting age, I would rather look at all individuals as a whole. Such as their environment, why individuals may be more careless then others, their parents overall perception and involvement in the community when it comes to voting on community policies and world events. I strongly disagree with the overall statement, individuals no matter their race, gender, class or age, are equally affected by their environment.
The welfare system in America is broken. It was originally designed to help people that cannot find jobs or cannot work but that is not exactly what it is doing. Not all people who are on welfare really need it and it is causing some people to be denied. Many families do not want to rely on the federal government because they do not want to be looked at as poor or that they cannot provide for their own family without extra help from others. A lot of people lie about what they do and do not do and conservatives and liberals ignore it when they know what is happening.
The privileged and well organized wealthy upper class of this country dominate the polls, the majority of the U.S. is not represented in election, further slowing the progress of political reform. Voting is the most obvious way for the average American citizen to exercise their rights, though only one-third of eligible voters take part in mid-term congressional elections and there was only a 57.6 percent voter turnout in this last presidential election. Public officials can only respond to the information they are given, which is more often than not from the most advantaged Americans. Those who have higher incomes and have received the highest levels of formal education are more likely to be politically active, making their needs and values taken into account by government officials first and foremost. The influence of the minority proves to in turn promote the government unresponsive to the needs of the vast majority of the population, prompting middle and lower class Americans to believe that their vote does not matter and cannot make a difference.