Political Parties and Campaigns

 Immigration: toughen immigration laws, only legal immigrants  Taxes: cut taxes to stimulate economy & help families  Death Penalty: supportive  Education: limited government involvement  Gun Control: no licensing, protect the 2 nd amendment

 Immigration: path for undocumented immigrants to gain citizenship  Taxes: cut taxes for the middle class not the wealthy  Death Penalty: supportive but include post- conviction reviews  Education: education is top priority  Gun Control: strengthen gun control

 Name-calling - insulting  Glittering Generalities – linking one thing to something that is seen as good/positive Ex connecting something to the word “freedom” or “democracy”  Euphemisms – using a different word to make something sound less unpleasant Ex undocumented workers = illegal aliens  Transfer – connecting 2 unrelated ideas  Testimonial – using someone famous to promote an idea Michael Jordan for Hanes

 Plain Folks – using images/people to make ideas appear “good” for ordinary people Supermarket using the president shops here to promote themselves  Band Wagon – “everyone’s doing it”  Card Stacking – offering only one side of the issue  Fear – suggesting something bad will happen if people do not think/behave in a specific way Fear  Exaggeration – making predictions with out enough facts to support them

 Feeling that people have on political or social issues  Factor that influence PO  Family  School  Religion  Mass Media  Things that shape PO  Public officials  Presidents/Governors  Mass Media  Special Interest Groups

 Measuring Public Opinion  Opinion Polls – survey of the views of a sample of the population It determines how strongly people feel, what people really want, how opinion is changing, is the public divided or unified?  Opinion Poll results depend on specific things: Who is giving it, who is polled, how many, how are the questions asked, and how is it given  Who does it?  Candidates/politicians  New Organizations that want to influence policy

 Requirements  American citizen  18 or older  Resident in the state you want to vote in  Registered  Registering Can register as a Democrat, Republican, or Independent  The US has the lowest voter turn out 56.8% in 2008

 Candidates Candidates Self nomination or Write-in Caucus meeting of party members to select a candidate Convention  Campaign Finance  Public Sources Have to agree to certain terms, most candidates do not accept these funds  Private Sources Individuals, party committees, the candidates

 Primary Elections  Open Primary – people from either party can vote  Closed Primary – only people registered under that party can attend and vote  These decide which candidate will represent the party in the general election

 Blue/Red States – the states that consistently vote democrat/republican  Battle Ground State (purple states) – swing states that are up for grabs for either candidate  Mudslinging – negative (often nasty/personal) way of campaigning  Spin – way of looking at a negative in a positive way  Swing voters – the people who don’t vote the same way each time