What Influences Political Process?

How do individuals and groups of people influence the political party?

First we know that the main groups are made up of what party you affiliate with such as Republican or Democratic Party. In the book in chapter 5 it goes in to great detail about the two different types of parties and how it affects the voters on how they choose their candidate. Electoral votes influence these two groups and determine who is elected in the presidential election. Money has the power just like we discussed a few weeks ago and money can lead to particular groups and individuals who influence the political party. Groups such as media also influence the political party, especially before primary and presidential elections and use mostly ads and commercials to influence the voters. Chapter 5 talks about what types of groups support each Democratic Party. For instance Union members influence the Democratic Party and also other members such as women, Jews, urbanites, singles, and low-income influence the Democratic Party.

 

In the book Politics of Power chapter 5 discusses what really influences the Political Process and in my opinion it is that media, money and power that influences the process.  Here shortly we are going to start hearing about the 2012 election and who is going to run from each party.  What campaign will collect the most money and have the best advertisements.  Think about all the money that goes into creating advertisements to win American citizens votes. 

Does the media influence the American people, or do Americans still vote based on what party they are associated with?

Public Opinion

Where would be if there were no public opinion? Public opinion is an important aspect of democracy and it has allows American people to have many freedoms.

Public opinion is giving us the right to vote for candidates of your choice and choose whatever party you want to be affiliated with. Not only is our voice heard on a national level, but also a state level. Our government, state elected officials, as well as ways to improve our society is public opinion. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of press and freedom of expression is influenced by public opinion. Campaigns are supported by the American people and the media has a huge voice in influencing public opinion. There are many countries that do not have a democracy like we do, and those countries do not have any public opinion influences. They cannot be different religions, or have a say in who will be elected to run their society. America is blessed to have the advantage of public opinion.

 

The new budget cuts announced this week was very disturbing.  Candidates will do anything or say anything to win public opinion to be elected in office.  Our Governor this past election promised that education would not see anymore budget cuts and won the public opinion.  Now he is in office and just announced the largest education budget cut in Colorado's history.  Disappointing to see that our children will now suffer in the classroom and more hard working Americans will be with out a job.  I came across an article that upsets me more about this budget cut.  A bill still has not been passed to ban welfare cards at strip clubs.  Here we are supporting people on welfare, but they spend that money at strip clubs?  How does that make sense?  here is the URL to the article
http://www.9news.com/rss/story.aspx?storyid=181427

Private sectors are groups that are not controlled by the state. They are private groups or individuals who enterprise for profit, whereas public sector is part of the state. In the US the private sector is the majority of our workforce. It is what drives our economy. The government is there to regulate and control the states. In most cases these two intersect in regards to money. Many people believe that the government spends too much on temporary jobs, and there is not enough money available for the private sector to create more technologies and build more businesses that in turn create long term jobs for this struggling economy. Our government does intersect with the private sector by helping out the workforce and supporting US citizens.

How can we as a country come together if our government and private sectors cannot work together? Federal spending is getting out of control and with the help of private sectors there can be an increase in jobs and an improvement in our economy. The government needs to find a balance in our states and support those states in creating new businesses. What we cannot forget about is that our government has done a great job in creating laws and helping to regulate these laws, which help protect Americans and businesses.

 

I must say for some reason I had a challenging time discussing private sector and government and how they intersect.  Some countries so not have a say in their jobs, and may not have the opportunity to advance to different positions.  The private sector give employees an opportunity to work in different positions and allow more opportunity to grow in the company.  Since the company can make their own decisions it is easier to be more flexible and gain pay raises.

What can the government do in order to create more businesses to help the American people with their employment?

The role of POWER

Power plays a role in our government in many ways. In our book I was reading chapter three and it talks about how expansion happened and how the government was involved, how it changed our economy and the politic s behind it. We all can agree that power=money in all three areas, but where would we be if we did not have power. Many may look at it as a bad thing, but I believe this makes America what it is today. We are the land of the free, and our government and politics help keep that freedom for the American people. Transportation marked the first revolution for our economy, development of new power sources led to the progressive era which both of these revolutions gave power to politics and the government and made for a powerful economy. Power also helped businesses expand which led to new construction and increased labor productivity, and this came from the power that the government was gaining and the political powers to empower America.

How will power in the US impact the politcal fight in Egypt?

Intelligence vs compassion

I would also have to agree that compassion is put second in our lives and there is more focus on our intelligence.  We are always comparing who has the highest IQ or who is more intelligent in the classrooms at a young age and not focusing on what happens in real life once you walk out into the world.  Our children are taught the skills of reading, writing, math, science and social studies and we measure how much intelligence they have on assessments tests and their performance, but never look at them on how they think about the real world.  When we look at politicians we pick them apart.  Many times we base our opinion on their religion, family background, previous work experience, and education, but do we look deep down into what they are passionate about or how they are going improve our government.  Compassion makes you evaluate one’s feelings on topics such as immigration for example.  My husband is Mexican, but born in America and is a US citizen and he feels that sometimes he is judged as being an illegal immigrant, but also works very hard to pay for health insurance and pay his taxes, whereas illegal immigrants do not pay taxes and in most cases receive health care, and sometimes kills innocent people just like last week on the hit in run.  If we based everything on intelligence than topics such as immigration, education and unemployment would not come from the heart and there would be no compassion.

Is Obama more of an intelligent or compassionate president compared to other presidents?  Is he both?

Page 31 in the book “The Politics of Power” talks about the mobilization of bias and capitalism.  There is an undemocratic private government and democratic politics and influenced by capital organization.