Hi Everyone,
Yes, this is Nicole. I apologize for not picking a more recognizable username. I enjoy spending time with the Yoyo club members and I'm happy to show up on a regular basis.
As you might have noticed, there are an infinite number of articles that you can read that are pertinent to this discussion. Furthermore, I think that if people get hung up on the personalities of the individual candidates, it becomes distracting and even more confusing. Therefore, I hereby attempt to setup a method by which to classify and organize many of the relevant issues and ideas that are involved in this election, which I will enumerate below:
1. Why do so many people care?
1a. While the US can no longer claim to be a unilateral super power (hegemon), the President of the United States is still the most well-known political figure in the world because he or she is popularly elected by a very large and economically powerful country. In fact, America is the country with the largest economy in the world:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... _(nominal)
1b. The popular election in itself stresses the importance of personality, and this is something that interests humans in general.
2. The most important demographic features that influenced how people vote:
2a. Geographic location: the West and Northeast generally vote for Democrats. The central and southern states generally vote for Republicans:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/elections.php
Although, as seen in the above link and as I later mention below, this has changed considerably overtime.
East: 2004 (22% of population): 56% Kerry, 44% G.W. Bush.
Midwest: 2004 (26% of population): 48% Kerry, 51% G.W. Bush.
South: 2004 (32% of population): 42% Kerry, 58% G.W. Bush.
West: 2004 (20% of population): 50% Kerry, 49% G.W. Bush.
2b. Race:
Blacks: generally vote for Democrats:
2012 (13% of population): 93% Obama, 6% Romney.
2004 (11% of population): 88% Kerry, 11% G.W. Bush.
Whites:
2012 (72% of population): 39% Obama, 59% Romney.
2004: (% of population): 41% Kerry, 58% G.W. Bush.
Latinos: Latinos are predominantly Catholic and therefore have conservative social values. They tend to be conservative when it comes to the economy but more liberal when it comes to immigration policy and this is their most important issue when voting.
2012 (10% of population): 71% Obama, 27% Romney.
2004 (8% of population): 53% Kerry, 44% G.W. Bush.
2c. Age:
Young People: Tend to vote Democratic, but if they lack passion for a particular candidate, they often don’t bother to come out to vote.
18-29: 2012 (19% of population): 60% Obama, 37% Romney.
18-24: 2004 (9% of population): 56% Kerry, 43 G.W. Bush
65+: Tend to vote Republican, very reliable voters.
2012 (16% of population): 44% Obama, 56% Romney.
2004 (16% of population): 47% Kerry, 52% G.W. Bush
2d. Religion: Christians vote overhwelmingly for Republicans primarily because Republicans are against abortion.
2e. Gender: Not super important, but women do tend to vote more often for Democrats.
Sources:
http://ropercenter.cornell.edu/polls/us ... oted-2012/ http://ropercenter.cornell.edu/polls/us ... oted-2004/
3. American politics is dominated by two parties: the Democrats and the Republicans. As the American voter base changes, so do the parties. This effectively results in an even balance of power between the two parties. Here is an oft-used example of when the overall voter base of the parties shifted:
In 1865, Abraham Lincoln, who was a Republican, won the American Civil War for the North. Bittered by this defeat, the South remained loyal to the Democratic party up until the 1970s when Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat, passed the Civil Rights Act and expanded the rights of the Blacks in the South. For this reason, Blacks currently vote overwhelmingly for Democrats and White Southerneres overwhelmingly vote for Republicans.
4. Balance of Power: While the President of the United States is often considered to be the most powerful person in the world, he or she can’t do whatever they want because of the system of checks and balances in the United States. There are three branches in the American government:
4a. Executive (President): Has veto power over any of the laws passed by the legislative branch, is the most highly ranked person in the army (i.e., Commander and Chief) and has the power to wage war, has the ability to pass executive orders ( I don’t really understand what these are myself, but this is an important power).
4b. Legislative (The Senate and House of Representatives): passes laws, has the ability to impeach the President.
4c. Judicial (The Supreme Court): Lifetime appointment, has the power to declare anything that the executive or legislative branches do as unconstitional and therefore, illegal.
Because of these checks and balances, what a presidential candidate says on the campaign trail doesn’t necessarily become reality when they’re in office. Therefore, voters need to balance what the candidates say with the overal effect that they think that a specific candidate will have on the government.
5. Issues:
5a. The economy/taxes: By far the most important issue, although each voter has a different opinion on how to solve this. Democrats tend to vote for a government safety net which implies raising taxes, particularly on the rich. Republicans tend to vote for a free market economy and lowering of taxes overall.
5b. Disatisfaction with the current government: this is probably the single issue that explains the popularity of, err, populist candidates such as Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Therefore, while they represent extreme ends of the political spectrum, Amercan voters are overwhelming indicating that this is an extremely important issue.
5c. Immigration: This is a very important issue for Hispanics. Very conservative Whites tend to have a negative opinion about the ~10 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States.
5d. Social welfare services: Elderly are big beneficiaries of Medicare (National healthcare for those over 65 years of age), therefore both Republicans and Democrats are big supporters of Medicare. Democrats tend to vote for expanded benefits for poor people, whereas Republicans are generally against this.
5e. National defense: Many Republicans are supporters of the idea of “small government”. Furthermore, the National government should be restricted to protecting the country via the military. Democrats tend to vote for the candidates that don’t make sure a big deal of protecting the country (i.e. fighting wars).
5f. Gun control: Many rural Americans support the Republicans because they are opposed to gun control. Many Blacks are in support of gun control because gun violence is a large problem in the inner cities where many Blacks live.
5g. Abortion: Has become an issue with the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Democrats generally support abortion and Republicans are against abortion on religious grounds.