Finish Media/Political PartiesI. Journalistic BiasII. Influence of the PressIII. The History of the SystemIV. Today’s Umbrella PartiesV. Party FunctionVI. Party StructureI. -With journalistic bias, media gives us stories about candidates. -4 stories that the press tells us-The Bandwagon story: When a candidate is gaining momentum and the polling numbers are going up. The media talks about gaining support, momentum,how great the new strategy is but with this bandwagon story, candidates get reallygood coverage because they are exciting. Downside- tends to be short termed and it will end.-Losing Ground Story: Media talks about how the candidate is faltering, the poll number is decreasing. It is quite negative. It still can be exciting by talking about how things are going.-Front Runner Story: Someone who is easily ahead but the media is going to talk about how your campaign is machine-like by talking about the same things. You are boring. Coverage is not necessarily going to be positive because you aren’t very interesting. -Likely Loser Story: Loser who is not going to make a comeback and they are also boring. Get tired of covering the Likely Loser. Who cares where he goes?Boring because there is no story really. Lame images. Coverage may not be that -different from the Front Runner because it is boring, not a whole lot because they are bored, and it can be mediocre. May be a lot of coverage but not the coverage we need to make the decision.II. -Do the media sway us? Read this website v. this website? Yes, the media has a lot of influence over our opinions. -Asking factual questions (not opinion) and what your new sources areIII. -Doesn’t take long for parties to form. -George Washington warns us about political parties in his Farewell Address. He says don’t go towards political parties although they have already formed and are in action. He’s too late.-Political parties formed in our system in the very first Congress. Our first political parties formed by internal mobilization. Meaning within Congress (institutions) groups formed into 2 parties. INTERNAL within our government. Parties can form through external mobilization which is outside the government. -First parties form along the Northern merchants (1st party) and the southern agrarians (2nd party). Different interests which bring them together in Congress in these two groups.-Northern merchants were the federalists (for Adams), southern agrarians were democratic republicans (for Jefferson).-Partisanship was rabid, ugly, dirty and didn’t play by the rules this early.Examples:Adams side- wanted the Alien and sedition Acts passed. It was said that Adams had royal aspirations and would rather be king than president. He had hopes of marrying off one of his sons to the kings daughter. Jefferson side- Feds didn’t leave him alone. Rumors like he was a “mean spirited low lived fellow, the son of a last breed indian squaw,… rape and incest if he was president”Ex. Jackson and Van Buren- Van supporters would hand out hand bills that had coffins on them that alluded to that there were unnecessary deaths by Jackson in his military career. Cleveland- Rumors that he had illegitimate children, cartoons about how he couldn’t walk down the street without a woman telling her child that his/her fatherwas him.-Partisanship- supported a party and wreck the other guy through the mud.-Does this have an effect?-Mudslinging/partisanship doesn’t depress voting. We loved it and couldn’t get enough of it but we loved our parties and continued to go to the polls.-Andrew Jackson was president who served 2 terms. He adds a new element to political parties that hadn’t existed before his presidency. He adds a spoils system to political parties. -Spoils system was a form of patronage. Low government job…. The only way you will get that job is by supporting the democratic party through the spoils system. Ties government jobs with party support. Only certain jobs that the president appoints. Thespoils system- corrupt form of patronage. Lasts until the end of the 19th century. The presidents after Jackson thought it worked great.-Movement that cleans up the corrupt political parties- the Progressive Movement or Progressive Reforms- attempts to clean up what was said to be a corrupt political system. -This was an attempt to untie the parties from all of that. 1. Civil service Reform- civil service exams- pass to show that you are the best person for that job. You will not get it based on your partisanship. Based on merit, not on party affiliation. 2. How elections worked with the parties… The way elections were set up: not secret. You went in and voted in front of everyone. Political parties were the ones in charge of creating the ballots. Party A form and Party B form in colored so everyone knows what party you are voting for. Want to be a garbage man? Youhave to vote for a certain party and if you don’t then you don’t get the job. The progressive movement added the Australian ballot- You have your very own voting booth. A secret place and no one can see. You get where the government takes over the printing of the ballot soall candidates are on the same ballot and same color.-These lessen the power of the parties. IV. -Our parties today: Republican Party and Democrat Party- we think of these as our umbrella parties. We do not tend to classify these as ideological parties. Non-ideological.-Take groups of people with the same interest and put them under the same umbrella. The point of the umbrella parties is to win elections. Groups under the umbrella.Tea party is under the big umbrella of the Republican Party. Group within RepublicanParty.-Not everybody agrees with the tea party.-Democratic party also has groups under their umbrella that don’t see eye to eye.-Third parties in our system is that they don’t really have a big effect. These parties find it difficult/impossible to win any election. -Why do we have big umbrella parties and why do our third parties tend to get hosed?-Single member districts- one person per district; no prize for 2nd place. There is a huge incentive to come in first. You need a lot of voters to win and get first. Large coalition that is put together under the umbrella parties. -Anthony Downs- “Bell Curve” method- how voters are distributed ideologically. The bulk of voters tend to be in the middle. For parties this means that if you want to get 1st, you have to attract the people in the
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