What
role did issues related to gender, race, ethnicity, age, religion, and class
play in the 2016 presidential election? Which demographic voting blocs do you
think the presidential candidates will need to target in 2020? Finally, why are
certain demographics more politically engaged (ex: older voters) and is there
anything that can be done to encourage other groups (ex: Millennials) to be
more invested in the political process? Remember to cite at least two of this week's readings as part of your response.
Many issues play a role in electing a president. Issues that have a tendency to show up quite often are gender, race, ethnicity, age and social class. History was made in 2008 when Barack Obama became the first black man president. In 2016, most people thought we would see history again by electing Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for president, however, that did not happen. Still, it was historic that a woman was elected to represent the Democratic Party. The United State’s government tends to be more masculine leaving only 19% of elected government offices to women (Denton, 180). Most men do not want to vote for a woman president. Republican candidate Donald Trump’s campaign saw issues of gender arise many times. Donald Trump verbally attacked many females during his campaign (and throughout his life). One time, Trump insulted White House contender Carly Fiorina by saying “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?” (Denton, 189). Trump did not try to appeal to women voters very much. Data from CNN shows that people under the age of 40, overwhelmingly voted for Clinton, and voters over 40 chose Trump in the same measure (Cole). The vast majority of black, latino, asian and other race voters voted for Clinton while white voters chose Trump (Cole). Results show that voters with higher income voted for Trump as well. Certain religions have specific views on issues like abortion. More Protestant and Catholic people voted for Trump (Cole). In 2020, candidates should target women. During the 2016 election and after, women felt abandoned. With a president verbally abusing women and abortion rights possibly on the way out, candidates need to make sure women feel like their voices are heard. Minorities also need to be targeted. Having a Democratic president for the past 8 years and then switching to Trump was a hard adjustment. These people feel like they are not important and the racial divide continues to grow. Personally I believe older demographics are targeted more than younger people. They are affected more by certain issues than high school graduates and college students. Also, younger voters are harder to reach due to technology, and, do not have as much knowledge when it comes to politics. However, tragedies and other issues can cause millenials to get involved in politics. For example, students from the Parkland, Florida shooting protested for stricter gun laws. When a political issue directly affects people, they are more likely to vote. Laina Yost from Yahoo News says “Della Volpe believes young people will vote when they see the political system address their priorities, including access to higher education, structural racism and big money in politics (Yost). Making the voting process easier can cause millenials to vote more. Also, millenials are involved in politics in other ways besides voting.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
Cole, Nicki Lisa. “How Race, Gender, Class, and Education Influenced the Election.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, www.thoughtco.com/race-gender-class-and-education-4111369.
Denton Jr., Robert E., ed. The 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign: Political Communication and Practice. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2017.
Yost, Laina. "More Young People Plan to Vote this Year. But Their Key Issues May Surprise You." Yahoo News. 1 June 2018.
DiSalvo 1
ReplyDeleteThe election of 2016 was a referendum on sexism, racism, and discrimination in our country. The election of Trump, for many, was validation that discrimination and prejudice are still alive and well in our democracy.
Hillary Clinton, being female, inherently brought the discussion of gender into the election. However, Donald Trump’s history of making crude comments about women and history of sexual assault brought gender issues to a boiling point. Millennial Democratic women didn’t identify with Clinton’s feminism. While women voted overwhelmingly against Trump, women who supported Trump were scorned by other women for abandoning feminist principles.
Race was also a contentious issue in 2016. After Obama’s election, it seemed as though racism in America had finally met its match. But Trump’s election reversed this progress. Trump was successful at “denigrating the outclass” which includes immigrants. This is one form of hate speech outlined in chapter eight of The 2016 US Presidential Campaign. The authors write, “For the voter, those who believe that “outsiders” are responsible for their lost jobs may conclude that eliminating the out-group will resolve the problem...there were many expressions of outrage at the perception of a white culture under attack” (Kirk and Martin 217). Trump framed immigration as an attempt by minorities to change the America white people felt entitled to.
As usual, younger voters participated in low numbers in 2016. Many young voters that did participate, rallied around Bernie Sanders and ultimately hurt Clinton’s campaign. Older voters played a significant role in Trump’s victory. In fact, Trump succeeded largely because of “extraordinarily high vote among largely older whites who did not have a college degree”(Balz) according to demographer William Frey. Religion played a role because of Trump’s appeal to white evangelists and his controversial Muslim-ban policy. This election also divided the classes in America. While both candidates were wealthy, Trump did a better job appealing to working-class Americans because of how he spoke and the fact that he had global scapegoats for their problems here. Conversely, after her “deplorables” comment to a group of wealthy donors, Clinton was viewed as ignorant to the needs of the working class.
In 2020, these key 2016 demographic groups will be imperative for candidates to consider. Women are an interesting demographic because, “women do not have much in common from an electoral perspective” (Denton 195), meaning they do not all vote as a single bloc. For this reason, candidates will need to consider the female voting bloc as a culmination of many blocs which all vote differently. For example, in 2016 older women without a college degree went for Trump, but educated women went for Clinton. Candidates running in 2020 that try to appeal to millennial women need to consider what era of feminism they are branding, so as not to repeat Clinton’s mistakes. The African American voting bloc that carried Obama is important, especially for the Democrats, due to its low turnout in 2016. In my opinion, Democrats should also target working-class Americans in Trump country. Many of Trump’s original supporters, especially farmers, may be looking for a different option in 2020 as some of his promises are falling short of expectation.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLindsey Guadagni
ReplyDeleteThere were so many issues related to gender, race, ethnicity, age, religion and social class that plays into presidential elections. Donald Trump was a famous businessman and reality TV star that ran for president and won. His opponent was Hilary Clinton the first woman in a presidential election. In an article published in the Washington post, they explain why Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton won certain counties. Here’s a great quote from the article in the Washington Post “In the counties Clinton won, “racial minorities outnumber white in all ages under 45 and are not far behind in the 45-54 age group.” Trump’s counties are far different. White voters outnumber minorities among all age groups in those counties, in some cases by large numbers. In the states that decided the election, those counties were “ripe for a message that favored older, disconnected white voters,” he notes.”(Balz, 2018) I feel that the white race was completely favored in the election because lots of older white voters voted for Donald Trump and considering that is a majority of voters, Trump won. Also, not many men favored the idea of Donald’ Trump's opponent Hilary Clinton winning considering the fact that she is a Women. Older voters are more politically engaged this is no secret, but I feel that millennials are getting more involved because of social media. Donald Trump was all over social media and that lead to young voters learning more about him and that leads to more people wanting to vote. Millennials usually think that they aren't affected by the vote, but they are the most affected by the vote because it is there future that is in the hands of the older generation that does vote. Politicians need to do a better job of getting younger people to vote, its just facts. A quote from a different Washington Post article titled “Why Don’t Millenials Vote?” stated “if politicians want more young people voting, they can find ways to encourage it. Automatic voter registration systems as in Oregon and California make voting easier for young people who are likely to move often. Colorado’s 2013 reforms make it easier to register and vote on election day by pairing mail-in ballots with drive-through drop-off. This increases turnout and decreases the cost of vote administration. And as we’ve seen in the 2008 and 2016 campaigns, when candidates actually speak to the concerns and interests of the young, more are drawn into the electoral process.” (Dalton, 2016) I completely agree with the author of the article Russel Dalton on finding ways to make voter registration easier so that the younger generation can be more encouraged to vote.
Balz, Dan. “Analysis | Obama and Trump Both Bent Demographic Trends to Win. Can Trump Repeat in 2020?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 4 Aug. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-and-trump-both-bent-demographic-trends-to-win-can-trump-repeat-in-2020/2018/08/04/fac683f6-9805-11e8-a679-b09212fb69c2_story.html?amp;wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1&utm_term=.43174a7c20c5.
Dalton, Russel. “Why Don't Millennials Vote?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Mar. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/22/why-dont-millennials-vote/?utm_term=.c7d9316e1391.
As is typical with every election in the United States, gender, race, ethnicity, age, religion and class all played significant roles in determining a winner. That being said, while some of these issues were at the forefront throughout, they didn’t play as large of a role as they did in past years. Then a candidate, Donald Trump was shown on-record saying disparaging things about people based on their gender, race and religion. Despite that, American voters were so disenchanted by the “establishment’s actions” over the past eight years, they were willing to look past these remarks. Instead, the election of 2016 came down to one issue: class. Donald Trump appealed to the middle class, working-class American population in a way that we haven’t seen in years.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to 2020, the “new kids on the block” are increasingly becoming a desirable target demographic for campaign offices. Millennials are the country’s most impressionable demographic, which means that each party is now trying to find the best way to win them over. That being said, the baby boomer generation cannot be neglected, as they still carry a great deal of clout: “…there is an increase in millennials and Gen Xers who are now identified in voter registration lists, which are used by party and organizations to create voter mobilization lists,” Amy Sherman wrote. “That means that these blocs might cast more ballots than in the past if parties and other groups are successful at mobilizing them,” (Sherman 2018).” The increase in voter registration for those two groups is music to campaign managers’ ears, but also means that there need to be changes made to the system if they want voter turnout to increase.
When it comes to the reasons for certain demographics being more active than others, a number of factors come into play. Level of education, income, race, gender; the list goes on infinitely. In my mind, however, the main reasons that millennials have lagged behind in voter turnout comes down to one thing: ease of access. Kids don’t come out to vote because it’s a hassle, and there are so many things they could be doing instead. Some states have gotten out ahead of the curve and made changes to try to recruit the younger voters: “Automatic voter registration systems as in Oregon and California make voting easier for young people who are likely to move often,” Russell Dalton wrote. “Colorado’s 2013 reforms make it easier to register and vote on election day by pairing mail-in ballots with drive-through drop-off,” (Dalton 2016). When faced with waiting in an hour-long line, knowing that the pay-off is nothing more than bubbling in a piece of paper, millennials aren’t nearly as likely to make that sacrifice. A lack of experience in the world leads to a simple lack of knowledge about the candidates and the issues, which in turn leads to a lesser feeling of civic duty. If states continue to make the process easier for younger voters, they’ll have the key to unlocking a large and diverse generation. If millennials start to vote, our entire political structure could be altered for decades to come.
Works Cited
DeleteDalton, Russell. “Why Don't Millennials Vote?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Mar. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/22/why-dont-millennials-vote/?utm_term=.4556dccff55d.
Sherman, Amy. “Will Millennials Be the Largest Voting Bloc in 2018?” Politifact, Poyner Institute, 13 Feb. 2018, 1:36 P.M., www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/feb/13/will-millennials-be-largest-voting-bloc-2018-rock-/.
The 2016 election garnered plenty of conversation, but most notably were the issues surrounding demographics throughout the campaign. Demographics can be discussed from many perspectives, but the most interesting one was age during the 2016 election. Millennials being the new young vote were a target audience, one that not reached well by either candidate. In the 2016 election, millennials were the age group that showed up the least, despite being the most educated. According to the article, Why Don’t Millennials Vote? (Washington Post), “…And beyond voting, the young appear to be political dropouts. For instance, in a cover story for Time Joel Stein calls millennials the “narcissistic generation,” and Jean Twenge says they are the “me generation,” stuck to their phones and uninterested in politics,”. It is frustrating for politicians, most notably for those in the 2016 election, that this group seems to be the most unreachable, because they are estimated to be the most important voting bloc in the 2018 midterm elections, with experts saying if they showed up in numbers, real change could occur.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the article by Politifact, Rock the Vote predicted millennials will be the largest voting bloc in 2018. Rock the Vote tweeted on Feb. 2, “Millennials are the largest and most diverse generation and this year we will be the largest voting block,” (Politifact). After analyzing the polling data, and comparing other research, the article determined that, “it is likely, but not certain, that the millennial vote will surpass Gen X in 2020,” (Politifact). It is clear that the upcoming 2020 presidential election is a critical one, and the need to get citizens registered and turn up on election is more prevalent than ever. Presidential candidates need to find a way to reach millennials in the next two years, with this and other traditional groups that may or may not support then, the vote will powerfully be in their favor. Politicians need to be savvy, creative, and aggressive with this group to get their attention.
It is important to note that while millennials ought to be the most sought after vote, other generations crush them in terms of voter turnout numbers. Generations before like Gen X and the Baby Boomers show up astronomically on election day, and have been since they were allowed. This is probably a generational issue, while older voters see voting as a right and opportunity to exercise your freedom and fulfill your civic duty, younger generations see nothing truly special about the ability to vote, so they don’t have the need. I think that in order to get millennials more invested in the political process, candidates have to tailor-make their campaigns to them. Millennials are a group that value social issues heavily when evaluating a candidate. Although policy issues are important, millennials want to hear about social progression and education, and their loans not crushing them upon graduation. It seems that candidates just don’t take a moment and think “What would I be worried about happening in the next 5 years as a 22-year-old?” I’m worrying about my reproductive rights, my rights as a woman, my equality as a woman, my student loans, my education, my LGBTQ+ friends, and other things that you think about as a young person in America today. Sadly, I think campaigning has simply gotten less to be tailored to the individual, and more so towards discrediting the other candidate, and millennials simply want nothing to do with that.
References:
Delete“Will Millennials Be the Largest Voting Bloc in 2018?” @Politifact, www.politifact.com/truth-
o-meter/article/2018/feb/13/will-millennials-be-largest-voting-bloc-2018-rock-/.
“Why Don't Millennials Vote?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Mar. 2016,
www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/22/why-dont-millennials-vote/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a28fe5f4f49f.
Denton Jr., Robert E., ed. The 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign: Political Communication and
Practice. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2017.
Samantha Nardone 1
ReplyDeleteThe 2016 election was one of the first time I remember intersectionality playing such a large role, rather than just focusing on one specific group identity, and the exit polls show this. Women did not all vote the same way, especially when race and socioeconomic status are factored in. When I look at each of the groups listed in the question, I am reminded of all of the ways Trump insulted each group and how people still voted for him. In this election, the normal way we assume a group’s identity will influence their vote was wrong for so many people. It was assumed that because Clinton was a woman, women would just vote for her, but we know this did not happen. In his book, Robert E. Denton says, “ There was a clear assumption in the Clinton campaign that Clinton’s candidacy would have a strong appeal to all women… Many of the older women’s rights advocates viewed the election of Clinton as the next logical step in the women rights movement.” One of the campaign's biggest mistakes was to assume that women as a whole have the same interests especially in areas of women's health and reproductive rights. This election showed us that there is a significant portion of women that do not support a woman’s right to chose and many women do not think feminism is needed and do not want it. On the other side, I think a lot of women did not trust Clinton because she stayed with her husband after everything he did. I also think internalize sexism played a huge role for a lot of women, whether or not they recognized it. White women were, in my mind, were the most influential voting group in 2016 because a majority did not vote the way it was predicted they would.
The most important voting blocs for 2020 will be determined after the midterm elections because right now we are seeing massive efforts to not only get people to vote but to get people registered. After the midterms, we will see which groups came out to vote and who they supported. I think white women will play a key role again because they received the most criticism following the 2016 election. The #MeToo movement, the defeat of Roy Moore, and the Kavanagh confirmation all took place since the 2016 election. I think and hope that white women are going to show up for candidates that understand the rage they are feeling, and are going to do something to change the current political state. This might also be true for voters 18-25 who feel that they are not all represented by a Congress that has an average age of 59 (Manning, 2016).
Samantha Nardone 2
DeleteI think older voters are more involved for a couple of reasons. First, When I talk to my grandparents and great aunts and uncles they see voting not just as a right but a duty. Most older people fought in WWII or knew someone who did, they were fighting for democracy and what better way to show your love of democracy than to vote. Second, it was easier to register and vote in the past for some groups. Baby boomers and some Gen Xers remember a time when they had to fight to vote and had to fight to make voting accessible for everyone. Millennials did not have to worry that they would not be able to vote because of their race or language in the same ways older generations did. Talking to people my age I've realized that a lot of them take their right to vote for granted. The 2016 election showed this with so many millennials saying they don’t like politics or they didn’t like the candidates so they didn’t vote. The research presented by PEW in Richard Fry’s article, “Millennials and Gen Xers Outvoted Boomers and Older Generations in 2016 Election” shows that voting rates were up overall in this election especially for Gen X, but Millenials still are turning out at the lowest rate. I think candidates need to reach and excite Millennials more. Campaigns need to recognize the wide age range that Millennials cover and understand that people ages 21 and under are not Millenials. Older people lump all people 35 and under as all one group. But I grew up with technology in a way that was completely different than people who are 35. Understanding what people in their 30s want versus people in their 20s will help candidates appeal and connect to younger voters.
Works Cited
Denton, D. E., JR. (2017). The 2016 US Presidential Campaign Political Communication and Practice. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Fry, R. (2017, July 31). Millennials, Gen Xers outvoted Boomers and older generations in 2016 election. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/31/millennials-and-gen-xers-outvoted-boomers-and-older-generations-in-2016-election/
Manning, J. E. (2016, December 5). Membership of the 114th Congress: A Profile (Rep.). Retrieved https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43869.pdf
The 2016 election was certainly a memorable one due to the fact we had one of the most polarizing candidates to ever run for office in Donald Trump. Trump was very vocal, and to a fault very willing to speak his mind, whether or not he has thought about the consequences of his words. This being said Trump’s “approval rating stands at 42%, according to Gallup” (Newman) Despite Trump’s degrading comments towards women, offensive remarks to immigrants and the people of Mexico people still seem to support Trump through thick and thin. I believe the reason different demographics choose to vote is due to their current status. Those who are very comfortable want to vote to ensure that they remain comfortable. On the other end of the spectrum, we have those who are not comfortable, and want to change their situation. Granted there are more people that are not comfortable, that is a large voting demographic that a candidate can pander to. When it comes to millennials it is said that they are “significantly less likely to vote or try to influence others vote than were the ’80s generation in the 1987 survey “(Dalton). This is interesting as “The American National Election Study found that around 30 percent of the public tried to influence others how to vote in elections from 1952 until 1996; since 2000 this has averaged over 40 percent.” (Dalton) The way I see this is that Millennials like to have their opinions heard, and with social media at an all-time high in use people have platforms to try to influence others to vote a certain way. “Pew found that millennials reported casting 34 million votes in 2016, nearly double the number they cast in 2008.” (Sherman) Therefore, while there is still a large amount of millennials who voted, I feel that the ratio of those who are eligible to vote to those who did is still low for how much millennials discuss politics on social media. I am not sure if there is one particular battle plan to get younger people to vote but I know that I personally would be more likely to vote in an election if I could look at 2 candidates that are respectful and integral politicians who have not participated in serious crimes or attack each other on a personal level. I am fine with an election like the one in 2012. Obama and Romney were civil, while it was still a competitive election. There can still be class in competition, as we have seen many times in years past. I hope that the 2016 is not indicative of what elections in the future will be like.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited:
“Will Millennials Be the Largest Voting Bloc in 2018?” @Politifact, www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/feb/13/will-millennials-be-largest-voting-bloc-2018-rock-/.
“Why Don't Millennials Vote?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Mar. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/22/why-dont-millennials-vote/?utm_term=.c7d9316e1391.
Biases are all around us and are extremely common to spot. Little do we know that our own lives cause us to sway our ideas and thoughts. Our culture, religion, age, race, gender and more play a key part in how we think and how we perceive common day domestic issues. Just about every American voter aligns differently from others on the political spectrum because we all had a diverse upbringing based on our environment. A devoutly religious farmer from the Midwest prioritizes certain issues differently than an impoverished single mother living in a city. Our environment creates who we are and how we think.
ReplyDeleteVoters’ biases play a massive role in who they see fit for the Oval Office. The 2016 election certainly was not conventional, whereas the voter turnout showed a clash between two worlds. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, but the electoral college deemed Donald Trump the victor. Though Clinton had more support at the polls, Trump turned more states red on election night. Hillary Clinton loss in 2016 was not because she was an unappealing candidate. In fact, “… According to a 2016 Rasmussen poll, 78 percent of men and 79 percent of women said they could vote for a woman for president” (Denton 180). A big part of Clinton’s campaign was attempting to pull in a solid feminist voting base along with the Democrats’ usual inner-city and racial minority bases. She technically did not fail at accruing more votes than Trump in the end.
However, Donald Trump as a candidate appealed to more demographics than Clinton, and that is what ultimately secured him the win. He won the majority of the Rust Belt and a few key battleground states because of this. His talking points appealed a lot to the average white blue collar worker who felt like they had no voice in President Obama’s administration. Demographer William H. Frey broke down the geography of this region’s voters and how they responded to Trump’s candidacy after Obama’s presidency: “Obama won all of these states (except Iowa) in 2012 by gaining more votes from racial minorities than he lost to whites. Trump won by gaining more whites than he lost to racial minorities… [There was an] extraordinarily high vote among largely older whites who did not have a college degree. They split for Trump by 66 percent to 29 percent nationally. Second was “reduced turnout and Democratic voting among racial minorities, especially blacks. Third was the benefit Trump gained electorally from the urban-rural split that now shapes politics...” (Balz 2). The combination of a huge turnout of white people without college degrees and the lack of Democratic turnout ultimately caused Trump to easily take integral states in the election.
One demographic that has been hailed as politically unmotivated are millennials and the newest generation of voters, which I am part of. I think that millennials and younger have become increasingly involved in politics in contrary of the stigma that we are uninspired. In fact, “Millennials and Generation Xers cast 69.6 million votes in the 2016 general election, a slight majority of the 137.5 million total votes cast, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data” (Fry 1). Today, looking into the midterm elections a lot of campaigns are based on inspiring people to go out and vote. I interned for a US Senator’s reelection campaign this past summer, and the goal was to get people, particularly millennials, excited to go out and vote in November. Younger generations have become more inspired than ever to vote after watching this current administration and Congress.
Works Cited
DeleteBalz, Dan. “Analysis | Obama and Trump Both Bent Demographic Trends to Win. Can Trump Repeat in 2020?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 4 Aug. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-and-trump-both-bent-demographic-trends-to-win-can-trump-repeat-in-2020/2018/08/04/fac683f6-9805-11e8-a679-b09212fb69c2_story.html?utm_term=.4ed265332888&wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1.
Fry, Richard. “Millennials, Gen Xers Outvoted Boomers and Older Generations in 2016 Election.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 31 July 2017, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/31/millennials-and-gen-xers-outvoted-boomers-and-older-generations-in-2016-election/.
The 2016 US Presidential Campaign : Political Communication and Practice, edited by Jr, Robert E. Denton, Palgrave Macmillan US, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/quinnipiac/detail.action?docID=4922011.
Sophia Toppo
ReplyDeleteBlog 6
When examining the voting trend between candidates it is important to understand the trends of voters based on race, class, age and gender. Obama made history by becoming the first African-American president and this can be easily credited to, “…the power and presence of minority voters, particularly African Americans”(Balz, 1). Then to follow up in the 2016 election, Clinton was the first woman to be nominated to run for president. As we saw trends of minority and ethnic voters during Obama’s campaign, The campaign of 2016 lead to some very interesting gender and age issues on both sides of the election. As Hillary Clinton ran for president it was assumed that most women would vote for her. Even though Clinton had a 20-point lead of Trump among women, she lost votes due to issues with the ages of voters. In his book, Robert E Denton explained that, “…millennial women were not enamored with the Clinton campaign…today’s generation of feminists thus views Clinton’s feminism as more traditional, outdated…”(Denton, 182-183). This just proves that in this election even though Hilary was the first woman nominated to run for president, it did not mean that people would agree with her and in the end vote for her. Donald Trump also faced many gender issues in voting because of his vulgar comments he makes about women on a daily basis. He did not try to gain the appeal of women but instead tried to maintain his masculine character to gain the votes of men. The women who voted for Trump were people who agree with his policy choices. To sum it up, Clinton was very successful in gaining the votes of “…well-educated white women in the suburbs and for Trump married white women primarily in final battleground states”(Denton, 194).
For the coming election in 2020 it is important that politicians attract the millennials to vote, because it has been proven that millennials are less likely to vote, but they are still politically active and have political interest. Young people and older people behave very differently in politics depending on the time they grew up in. A lot of older people grew up with the idea that voting is a civil duty and it is something that proves your loyalty to your country. Most of the younger generation doesn’t have this mindset, and even with this past election where neither of the candidates was appealing, their participation in voting was very minimal. In order to get them more involved in voting, politicians need to constantly express how easy it is to register to vote and continue to discuss issues the younger generations are passionate about. Milennials are fighting for change, and they want progression in America. With this past election, while the two candidates were attacking each other, they could have instead reached out to these younger generations to grab the interest and prompt them to vote in return. Maybe the outcome of the election would have been different.
DeleteBalz, Dan. "Obama and Trump Both Bent Demographic Trends to Win. Can Trump Repeat in 2020?" Washington Post, 2 Aug. 2018.
Denton, Robert E. The 2016 US Presidential Campaign Political Communication and Practice. Switzerland, Springer International Publishing, 2017.
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During the time of the 2016 presidential election, issues such as gender, race, ethnicity, age, religion and class, played a major role. For example, many people thought that electing Hillary Clinton as the first Democratic woman president would make history, but that obviously didn’t end up happening. Instead, the United States made history in a different way by electing president Donald Trump, a man who was never the “acceptable” or “ideal” candidate, but instead was popularly known for being a media celebrity and knew little to nothing about being involved in politics. Another example of an issue that played a major role throughout a presidency, was the 2008 election when Barack Obama won and was the first black male president of the United States.
ReplyDeletePrior to the 2016 presidential election, issues rose for candidate Donald Trump regarding whether or not he respected women. For campaign purposes, a lot of Hillary Clinton’s ads revolved around this issue, using Trump’s words about women against him throughout the race. Previously, Trump insulted Carly Fiorina, by saying “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?” (Denton, 189). It was no shock that a lot of women did not want to stand behind Trump throughout the 2016 presidential election.
When it comes to the voting period of the 2020 presidential election, I think that the demographic voting blocs that the presidential candidates will need to target then will be the millennials. I feel that older demographics are targeted more often than younger ones, and there’s many reasons behind that. Millennials are often less likely to vote than older people. One article mentions how this generation is referred to as the “narcissistic generation” or the “me generation”, due to the fact that millennials are often stuck to their phones with little to no interest in politics or any issues surrounding it (Dalton). In a graph regarding political participation over time in the article “Why don’t millennials vote?”, it showed voters in the years of 1967, 1987, and 2014. From this graph, it was said that millennials in 2016 are significantly less likely to vote or influence others to vote than the 80’s generation (Dalton). Although, millennials today do display about the same level of political interest just as the youngest generation did in 1987, and they are more likely to get involved in protests or some sort of political confrontations than both 1967 and 1987 (Dalton).
I personally feel that certain demographics such as older voters, are more politically engaged than other groups such as millennials because millennials feel that their voices will not be heard. I also think that some millennials are scared to speak up about certain issues because they are not educated enough about the topics. Another reason why I feel that millennials aren’t that politically engaged is because if they do feel strongly enough about something to go out and vote on it, they are often stressed with finding the time in their schedule to go and do so. I think that involving millennials and making sure that they believe that they have the opportunity to get involved and make a difference is extremely important.
Works Cited:
Dalton, Russell. "Why Don’t Millennials Vote?" Washington Post, 22 March 2016.
Denton Jr., Robert E., ed. The 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign: Political Communication and Practice. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2017.
I think that race, gender, ethnicity, age, religion and class all played a major role in the 2016 presidential election. It can’t be understated how big of gender, race and age specifically played in the outcome of the election. I believe that the Clinton campaign believed that they already had a lot of the women and African American demographic locked down and so they didn’t focus as much on those voters. African American’s typically vote democrat, so it can be understood why the campaign would think that. I also think that Hillary Clinton being a woman along with the nasty tapes of Donald Trump on the Access Hollywood bus being released should have locked down the women vote for Clinton, however the election and textbook proves otherwise. The textbook, The 2016 US Presidential Campaign, states on page 179 that, “Exit polls revealed that although women voted against Trump by one of the largest margins in history, noncollege women voted for Trump two to one and he carried married and evangelical white women by double digits. It also appeared that many women who voted for Clinton did so with some degree of ambivalence.” The textbook later goes to say what the Clinton campaigned probably feared which is that, “According to a 2016 Rasmussen poll, 78 percent of men and 79 percent of women said they could vote for a women for President. Interestingly… only 4 percent of all Americans think they should vote for a woman because of being female. For women, it is double that of 8 percent.” I think those stats prove what we know now but were in the dark about in November of 2016, which is that there was a large majority of women that were not supporters of Hillary Clinton.
ReplyDeleteI think the question as to which voting blocs will be most important to target in 2020 is a tough question to answer now because we don’t know who the democratic candidate will be. For President Trump, I think he will have to retain a lot of the women that voted for him in 2016. It will be interesting to see if he can keep them after he nominated and is now celebrating the confirmation of judge Brett Kavanaugh. For the democrats, I think that they can’t forget about the minorities and the people that supported Obama in both 2008 and 2012.
I think the question as to why Millennials don’t vote is such an interesting one. It seems that most Millenialls are pretty involved in politics and like to share posts on social media but when it comes to going to the polls they are hesitant or just don’t show up. Though there are some people that I am friends with that have absolutely no idea about politics and don’t think it matters, a lot of them do care and want to be invested. People are just lazy and don’t want to get absente ballots and some aren’t even registered. However, an article written by Richard Fry of the PewResearch.org stated that, “Millennials and Generation Xers cast 69.6 million votes in the 2016 general election, a slight majority of the 137.5 million total votes cast, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data. Meanwhile, Boomers and older voters represented fewer than half of all votes for the first time in decades. The shift has occurred as Millennials accounted for a growing share of the electorate and as those in the Silent and Greatest generations aged and died..” However, when it comes to midterm elections, Millenials often don’t come out for the midterm elections as the Yahoo News article written by Laina Yost explained, “Youth turnout in elections has been consistently low throughout the years. In 2010, only 24 percent voted in the midterm elections. In 2014, that number was 20 percent — the lowest number recorded in forty years.” Granted, those numbers are only for the midterm election, but that is what's upcoming in a month. The Government had made registering to vote so easy and yet there are still people that are not registered. At this point, with how important this election is and how easy it is to vote, this is the time for Millennials to step up and take charge.
DeleteWork Cited
Denton Jr., Robert E., ed. The 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign: Political Communication and Practice. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2017.
Fry, Richard. “Millennials, Gen Xers Outvoted Boomers and Older Generations in 2016 Election.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 31 July 2017, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/31/millennials-and-gen-xers-outvoted-boomers-and-older-generations-in-2016-election/.
Yos t, Laina. “More Young People Plan to Vote This Year. But Their Key Issues May Surprise You.” Yahoo! News, Yahoo!, 1 June 2018, www.yahoo.com/news/young-people-plan-vote-year-key-issues-may-surprise-090006929.html.
In my own experience, I saw a clear gender, race and ethnicity line during the presidential election. Of course I saw a few outliers but, my father and many other blue collar workers like him voted for Trump while my mother and other immigrants like her in my community voted for Clinton. I know that in other areas there was a much more clear racial divide rather than gender divide. The best was to answer how issues related to gender, race, ethnicity, age, religion, and class played a role in the 2016 presidential election is to look at the “Political Bubbles and Hidden Diversity” map provided by the New York Times. College towns and major cities in red, conservative states mapped as blue, liberal areas. Other, deeply conservative aligning states has streams of blue cutting through them where there is a majority of people of color, specifically people whose history has been erased by white people and slavery. Personally, all I could think of while looking at this map was how electoral votes are not properly distributed throughout the country and electoral votes should match the state. If states in the deep south have these streams of blue cutting through them, then should not there be one or two electoral votes to match that? If electoral votes were doing what they were meant to do - be this elite group that looked out for the welfare of the entire country - would they have actually voted the way that they did?
ReplyDeletePresidential candidates will need to target Millennials and Gen Z for the 2020 election. This is a huge block that is looking to be motivated by a candidate. They have the ability to digest incredible amounts of information, but they need to be addressed in a way that feels authentic. They need a candidate who is not just a politician, but an influencer. There is a reason that Instagram Influencers and YouTube stars do so incredibly well. They are relatable, transparent, and give an insider’s view into events that matter. This is why Trump has been able to win so many people over. Older generations liked this about Trump because those qualities are what anyone likes in a person. It’s good public relations.
The difference here between older and younger generations is that he simply did not match the demeanor that these generations want a presidential candidate to have and he did n to match their views on social issues. Those issues are what get younger generations to the polls. We saw this past week with Kavanaugh’s confirmation that people were protesting in the streets, at the Supreme Court and at monuments. We saw this earlier this year with the #MarchForOurLives protests to encourage gun safety regulations and promote political action focused on school shootings. "Young people sharply increased their level of political engagement after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., political scientists say” (Yost). These are the issues that get young people motivated. That is how they can be reached.
The Upshot Staff. “Political Bubbles and Hidden Diversity: Highlights From a Very Detailed Map of the 2016 Election.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 July 2018, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/07/25/upshot/precinct-map- highlights.html.
Yost, Laina. “More Young People Plan to Vote This Year. But Their Key Issues May Surprise You.” Yahoo! News, Yahoo!, 1 June 2018, www.yahoo.com/news/young- people-plan-vote-year-key-issues-may-surprise-090006929.html.
The 2016 presidential election was one that everyone will remember for a long time. This was all due to the different demographics that were targeted as well as the ones that did not take voting as serious as others. The major issue related to demographics was how the candidates targeted them. As we all know, Trump is very confident in the way that he speaks. He does not care what comes out of his mouth even if it hurts a group of people. On the other hand, Clinton was very clear with her demographics, but did not focus on them in an intense way that she needed in order to win. Yes, she did win the popular vote, but this still did not allow her to win. With Trump targeting his demographics, he was able to make them realize how important it was to vote. In my opinion, this is what made him come out on top. He went through the election telling people that he will make a change, and this is what brought people into his realm. Clinton said her part, but was not strong enough to push certain demographics to vote for her. For instance, in the 2012 election when Obama won, his “margins among black voters were notably higher than John F. Kerry’s in 2004 or Hillary Clinton’s in 2016” (Balz). This is where Clinton could have had a chance. Because she already had an African American democrat as president during the election, she could have tried to keep them with her. Unfortunately, Clinton did not show a strong point in this area, which led the number of black voters on her side to decrease from when Obama was elected.
ReplyDeleteAnother reason why this election had issues with demographics is because it seemed to intimidate people. In my opinion, this election had two candidates that were both losses, and I think a lot of people in my generation thought the same. For this reason, I think it put pressure on millenials to not vote because they really did not know who would be the better candidate. The generations ahead of us, such as Generation X, were more prone to to vote in this election because they knew what they wanted after Obama. I do not think that millenials knew exactly what would be best for our country.
As for the election in 2020, the main demographic that should be targeted are millennials. At our age, we are the future and we need to know what is best for our country as a whole. If the candidates can get this across to this generation, I think more millenials will likely vote. This is because they will not be as scared as they were with the 2016 election. The 2016 election was forced in our faces all over social media, television, and our peers. This could change for the 2020 election if more focus was on us rather than the media. An article posted in The Washington Post explained how millennials have a tendency to push views on people and show a strong action for the elections, but they do not vote themselves. This goes back to my thought of millennials being scared. The article further explained that “when candidates actually speak to the concerns and interests of the young, more are drawn into the electoral process” (Dalton). I really think targeting the millennials will make a candidate have a better chance at winning because they already have the youth taking action with the elections, now they just have to get them to vote.
Furthermore, I think older generations take the political process more serious than the younger generations because the country went through more back then. In other words, they had WWII, the JFK assassination, and the Vietnam War. Although these are only a few of the many major points in American history, it does show that they know more about what they want to see for our generation than our generation does. Even though we are the future, they will always be more knowledgeable than us. They saw how President Nixon handled the Vietnam War and realized that they needed to step up. I think our generation will not take it as serious as they do until we see a major shift. In my opinion, the only major issue that we know about today are the gun laws. Because of all the shootings that we hear of, we take this issue as a more important one because we are living through this time period. Ultimately, I think our generation needs more time with President Trump in office before we can get more serious with the political process.
DeleteWorks Cited
Balz, Dan. “Obama and Trump both bent demographic trends to win. Can Trump repeat
in 2020?” The Washington Post. 4 August 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-and-trump-both-bent-demographic-trends-to-win-can-trump-repeat-in-2020/2018/08/04/fac683f6-9805-11e8-a679-b09212fb69c2_story.html?utm_term=.4ed265332888&wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1. Accessed 8 October 2018.
Dalton, Russell. “Why don’t millenials vote?” The Washington Post. 22 March 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/22/why-dont-millennials-vote/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.de5f8a2778c5. Accessed 8 October 2018.
Blog #6
ReplyDeleteIssues related to gender, race, ethnicity, age, religion and class were discussed vigorously throughout the 2016 campaign. In fact, these issues would play a deciding role in the overall outcome of the election process. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were polled as the most disliked candidates in electoral history. Leaving big potential for voter splits over the key issues listed above.
Hillary Clinton ended up winning the popular vote in the 2016 election, but did not win the presidency. Donald Trump managed to win the electoral college because of key turnouts in swing states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio. Polls and studies have shown that Donald Trump may have been put over the top in the ballets by the “old, white, non-college educated woman” demographic. Hillary Clinton did not receive a big enough turnout from particular demographics in key swings states, ultimately costing her the election.
Heading into the upcoming 2020 presidential election, candidates on the left will need to target millennials to turn out to the polls in much higher numbers. Data has shown that Millennials voted at a very low rate this past election cycle. In order for the Democrats to win in 2020 against Donald Trump, they will need to receive a massive turnout from millennial voters at the polls. On the other hand, Republicans will need an industrial demographic turnout. A similar demographic which put them over the top in the 2016 election.
In chapter seven of ‘The 2016 US Presidential Campaign, Political Communication and Practice’ Robert E. Denton states, “When Clinton attacked Trump for his penchant for sexism, he accused her of hypocrisy given her husband’s treatment of women. Trump’s attacks challenged the perception that Hillary was a strong feminist and was an apologist for a predator.” Donald Trump was extremely precise with his attacks against Hillary Clinton, and even more so on key issues dealing with gender roles and trustworthiness. This strategy eventually pulled more swing voters in key regions to the Republican Party.
Older voters are more politically engaged compared to the millennial demographic, and it clearly showed at the polls in the 2016 election. Older folk may feel more inclined to vote because they believe that their children and grandchildren’s future depends on it. Business and homeowners may feel more inclined to vote because the laws will impact them directly. In order to get millennials excited about voting, there needs to be an incentive. They need to be properly educated on key issues, and vote because they are passionate about doing so.
The Washington Post article entitled ‘Why Don’t Millennials Vote?’ by Russell Dalton states, “Millennials in 2016 are significantly less likely to vote or try to influence other voters than were the ‘80s generation in the 1987 survey, or the first wave of postwar baby boomers in 1967.” Overall, if the Democrats want to take back the White House in the 2020 election, they will have to focus on sticking to key issues pertaining to demographics in key swing states. Having an increase in millennial voters for the Democratic Party will allow them to have the upper hand going forward.
Works Cited
E., Denton Jr Robert. The 2016 US Presidential Campaign Political Communication and Practice. Springer International Publishing, 2017.
Dalton, Russell. “Why Don't Millennials Vote?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Mar. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/22/why-dont-millennials-vote/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0b2f1b5cd527.
Kevin G. Slattery
ReplyDeleteProfessor Lisa Burns
Strategic Communication in the Trump Era
8 October 2018
Blog Post #6
Demographic issues played a key role in the 2016 presidential election. The candidates were effective in dividing the electorate along racial, ethnic, gender, age, religious, and socio-economic lines. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton appealed to college educated women and minorities such as African Americans and Hispanics as key voting blocks. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump appealed to white Americans, specifically high school educated white voters as well as older white Americans. However, with that being said, the Republican party and Donald Trump have specifically struggled with attracting women to support them. This is especially true after allegations surfaced that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanagh had committed sexual assault against three different women (Rucker, Parker, Costa 1). Trump responded to the allegations against his then Supreme Court nominee by saying the allegations were part of a Democratic hoax (Jacobs 1). Public relations disasters such as the allegations against Kavanagh and the comments made by the President only enforce the image that the Republican party does not care about the concerns of women. Meanwhile, the Democrats have made tremendous efforts to appeal to women such as embracing the Me Too movement (Rucker, Parker, Costa 1). I expect the 2020 presidential candidates to appeal to the same voting blocs that their party tried to appeal to in 2016. The only difference may be that both parties could try harder to appeal to the certain demographic electorate in their parties. For example, Democratic interest in candidates such as Cory Booker and Kamala Harris may signal a desire within the party to appeal even more to minorities and women. I find that there are certain demographics that are more dedicated to voting than other segments of the population. Traditionally, older voters have out voted other segments of the population in past elections. Many older voters feel it is their civic duty to vote in all government elections and to actively voice their opinions. I do feel there are ways to encourage segments of the population such as millennials to vote more often. For example, a recent study found that most young Americans are primarily concerned about the economy and social inequality (Yost 1). I feel that there are political parties that could appeal to these concerns of millennials be able to get them to vote for their candidates. Specifically, I feel the Democratic party has the best opportunity to appeal to millennial voters because they can best appeal to these two issues that millennial voters really care about.
Works Cited
Jacobs, Ben. “Trump Claims Kavaungh Allegations Are Democratic Hoax in New Attack.” The Guardian, The Guardian, 9 Oct. 2018, www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-claims-kavanaugh-allegations-are-democrat-hoax-in-new-attack/ar-BBO7SEU.
Rucker, Philip, et al. “The Party of Men: Kavaungh Fight Risks Worsening the Trump GOP's Gender Problem.” The Washington Post, The Washington Post, 23 Sept. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-party-of-men-kavanaugh-fight-risks-worsening-the-trump-gops-gender-problem/2018/09/23/37d2dd88-bdb5-11e8-b7d2-0773aa1e33da_story.html?utm_term=.a403a02f702f
Yost, Laina. “More Young People Plan to Vote This Year. But Their Key Issues May Surprise You.” Yahoo News, Yahoo News, 1 June 2018, www.yahoo.com/news/young-people-plan-vote-year-key-issues-may-surprise-090006929.html.
Strong support for socially progressive identity politics has historically been a hallmark of left leaning political parties, and Bernie Sanders ran on platforms catering to these ideals, as most progressives did in the 2016 campaign. Nonetheless, the 2016 campaign of Trump would be typified by its contemptuous and rhetorically fascistic disregard and distortion of identity politics as an institution in favor of the economic and nationalistic populism espoused by a far-right GOP. Popular media now commonly projecting socially progressive values that aid the empowerment of women and POC’s means that leftist values are taking hold in the newer generations of American society and soon political policy; this terrifies white people. This fear culminated in one of the most prominent displays of organized fascism in the Unite The Right rally. Vast throngs of Jacob Heinens, fresh off viewing “Ben Shapiro Totally DESTROYS Rape Culture SJW Cuck” videos, marched through the streets with tiki torches chanting “The Jew will not replace us!” and “Blood and soil!”. This threatening, violent proclamation of genocide in American communities is a goal they not only believe in, but is one they aim to achieve as long as they can organize like this, VICE can make another documentary about it, and most importantly, there is a presidential candidate who runs on a platform that certainly enables this disturbingly large portion of the population, whether members of that population are marching in the streets or quietly sitting in MSS 349. Trump’s base felt that he campaigned on the issues they truly cared about, while many liberals and leftists including myself felt that Clinton would fail to represent our interests. Trump was able to personally embolden “white identity” types through social media while liberals had no figure to which they could identify with (after the DNC sabotaged Bernie Sanders) and had no real counterstrategy. They still don’t have one besides uselessly harping on shit that no actual person cares about or identifies with, like Eliza Gray does for the good ol’ Washington Post in perceiving relevant political insight by conspiratorially clinging to Russiagate, when she asks Republican voters about “special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into possible Trump campaign-Russia collusion”(Gray) instead of asking about something much more relevant to pretty much every voter.
ReplyDeleteThe primary voter blocs 2020 candidates should cater to are demographics who have become politically active through the events leading up to, surrounding, and succeeding the Trump administration, as well as people who miss the good old days of Dad-in-chief Obama, when it was very easy for white moderate Democrats to ignore the evils of American society, and when neoliberalism wasn’t under the scrutiny it rightfully now is subject to. As far as political events that can be utilized to grab specific voting blocs, White women can be tapped into against Kavanaugh in support of movements like #MeToo, and minorities can be tapped into against child separation and other abusive immigration policies that have, for some reason, only come to light now. These demographics primarily consist of Millenials and below, and Russel Dalton states, “Millennials are about as interested in politics as youth in prior generations, and about as politically active outside elections. They’re involved in local communities, volunteering, and challenging political elites. UCLA’s 2015 survey of first-year college students in the U.S. found “interest in political and civic engagement has reached the highest levels since the study began 50 years ago”(Dalton).
Dalton, Russell. "Why Don’t Millennials Vote?" Washington Post, 22 March 2016.
DeleteGray, Eliza. "The Next Generation of Republicans." Washington Post Magazine, 16 July 2018.
Jeffrey Evans
ReplyDeleteI believe that there are many factors that come into play when deciding who to vote for as President other than someone just voting based off belonging to the Democrat or Republican Party. These factors consist of things like race, age, gender and what issues affect the lives of the voters. These factors can definitely influence who the voters will vote for and I believe they do play a much bigger role in voting then some would think. Race has been something that’s been looked at for years, which is not an opinion it is a fact. In 2008 we elected our first black president, Barack Obama, and it was a huge stepping stone to help get past the stereotypes of being black in America and being in charge of the United States. I believe that it is much harder to become president if the candidate is not “white” just based off of prior experiences in America. I also believe age plays a huge role into winning an election as well. In 2016, we had a candidate named Bernie Sanders and he was approximately 75 years old. As a democrat he had a really even shot of beating Hilary Clinton to become the main representative for the party, however his age really played a part in his loss. People believed that he was too old to run this country and that is one major reason that took his chance away of potentially winning the presidency. I think in 2020 whoever is running will need to change their target groups. My generation is not involved in voting because many of us do not relate to the topics they are covering. In the article “More Young People…” it states, “only 6 percent of teens and young adults listed gun control as a top concern…” (Yost 2018). Having only 6 percent of teens feeling that gun control is important shows that our generation really doesn’t care about the topics that the candidates in 2016 talked about. Gun control was a huge part of the 2016 election and this explains why young voters really didn’t participate in voting. Therefore the candidate that can connect to the young population the best will have a huge advantage and will mostly likely win the next election in my opinion. Additionally, in the article “Why Don’t Millennials Vote”, they stated that making it easier to register for voting will help attract the younger voters (Dalton 2016). This is also another reason that pushes away the young people from voting. Now-a-days in this world everything moves fast and technology is moving quicker than ever before, therefore making registering for voting quicker and easier only makes sense. As a generation we are used to everything being a click of a button, the way registering for voting is set up right now turns off the young population from voting. In conclusion, I believe that in order for a candidate to win they must include the younger population while campaigning and appeal to the voters as much as possible.
Work Cited
Yost, Laina. "More Young People Plan to Vote this Year. But Their Key Issues May Surprise You." Yahoo News. 1 June 2018.
Dalton, Russel. “Why Don't Millennials Vote?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Mar. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/22/why-dont-millennials-vote/?utm_term=.c7d9316e1391.
ReplyDeleteDiSalvo 2
In my opinion, older voters are more engaged than other groups because they perceive that they have more issues at stake, like social security. Older voters also may not work and have more time to be informed about politics and thus might have stronger opinions. Younger voters, conversely, are very busy. Many are in college and the concept of having to request an absentee ballot is too tedious for most. Millennials may be disengaged because “a growing percentage of the young have delayed their careers, marriage and children, which delays their political involvement”(Dalton).
It is important for public officials to motivate disinterested voters to come out to the polls. Making election day a national holiday would encourage busy working Americans to vote. Also, there is an important lesson to be learned from Bernie Sanders and how he ignited and excited the left-wing youth. He talked about issues that are important to them, like college tuition. In 2020, the right candidate who is knowledgeable about the decisive demographics can succeed.
Works Cited
Balz, Dan. "Obama and Trump both Bent Demographic Trends to Win. can Trump Repeat in 2020?." The Washington Post, 4 August 2018, 2018.
Dalton, Russel. "Why Don't Millenials Vote?" The Washington Post, 22 March 2016, 2016.
Kirk, Rita, and Stephanie A. Martin. "The Dark Power of Words: Strategems of Hate in the 2016 Presidential Campaign." The 2016 US Presidential Campaign. Edited by JR Robert E. Denton. palgrave macmillan, Switzerland, 2017.
Robert E. Denton, JR. "Issues of Gender in the 2016 Presidential Campaign." The 2016 US Presidential Campaign. Edited by JR Robert E. Denton. palgrave macmillan, Switzerland, 2017.
John McMahon
ReplyDeleteTargeting certain demographics is a key factor in campaigning for the presidency. Without specific targeted messages to certain age, race or ethnicity groups, a candidate is far less likely to have their message and the success of their campaign resonate with the masses. In terms of the 2016 election, both the Clinton and Trump campaigns targeted their niche demographics, but even still the outcomes were not exactly as predicted. According to Dan Balz of the Washington Post, America (or American voters) were in somewhat of an “identity crisis” during the 2016 election and are still in one now. Balz goes on to tell that Clinton did “better, comparatively, in red states — such as Georgia and Texas — than she did in a swing state like Iowa”, due to something he describes as the “diploma divide” (Balz, 1). The “Diploma divide” is voters moving one way with a college degree versus voters without a degree moving to another. Race was also a polarized issue for the 2016 election. Of course, it is hard to forget “build the wall” chants referring to building a wall on the southern border, signifying Trump’s opinions on immigrants in this country.
Due to recent events with Brett Kavanaugh and the ongoing ramblings president Trump has made about women over the years, a key demographic candidates probably want to target is women. Voters will want to see a candidate that is concerned with women, unlike what president Trump emulates while president and had projected as a brash reality TV star. To many both in and out of politics, Trump is molding the republican party into “the party of men”, with statements such as Kavanaugh is the real victim instead of Ford and that Amorosa is “a dog” (Rucker, Parker, Costa, 1). Trump nature towards women can be described as “the 1960s ‘Mad Men’ alpha male”, with seemingly little to no respect for them. The Republican party, especially now with Judge Kavanaugh being appointed to the Supreme Court, will have to spin their concerns about women caused by President Trump if they want to get a majority of women’s vote in the upcoming 2020 election. Trump and Kavanaugh pose as serious pitfalls to getting these votes. Another demographic candidate should focus on in the 2020 election are millennials. Unlike their elderly counterparts who get out to vote due to routine and concern for medicare, millennials are far less apt to vote. It seems as though millennials will really always be a focused demographic to try and get a vote from. Millennials are more likely to engage in political protests and confrontation. But how does this translate to voter turnout? Liberal millennials had a huge turnout for Bernie Sanders in 2016, but Sanders did not get the nomination. Candidates must try to get millennial votes because they most likely make up some part of the population that will not vote at all. Candidates must encourage voting for millennials, making it pretty much as easy as possible to get out to vote. Options such as automatic voter registration systems offered in states such as Oregon and California “make voting easier for young people who are likely to move often” (Dalton, 1). Long story short, the easier it is for millennials to vote, the more of them will vote.
Works Cited
DeleteRucker, Phillip. “The Party of Men: Kavanaugh Fight Risks Worsening the Trump GOP's Gender Problem.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 23 Sept. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-party-of-men-kavanaugh-fight-risks-worsening-the-trump-gops-gender-problem/2018/09/23/37d2dd88-bdb5-11e8-b7d2-0773aa1e33da_story.html?utm_term=.a403a02f702f.
Balz, Dan. “Analysis | A Fresh Look Back at 2016 Finds America with an Identity Crisis.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 15 Sept. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-fresh-look-back-at-2016-finds-america-with-an-identity-crisis/2018/09/15/0ac62364-b8f0-11e8-94eb-3bd52dfe917b_story.html?utm_term=.7b79007aad8e&wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1.
Dalton, Russell. “Why Don't Millennials Vote?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Mar. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/22/why-dont-millennials-vote/?utm_term=.c7d9316e1391.
Data from the 2016 elections shows that self-identity was one of the biggest factors when it came to voters making decisions. There was a prevalence of ethnocentrism in American politics. This means people saw their own identity and culture as the most important factor in how they evaluated the world around them. Identity issues were more important to white voters in this election than in the past. One important phenomenon that occurred in this election is racial economics “Their definition of racialized economics is this: “the belief that undeserving groups are getting ahead while your group is left behind.” They say Trump played on these concerns throughout his campaign and has done so as president. They say “racialized economics” was more significant than economic anxiety in affecting how whites with different levels of education voted,” (Balz). To get a certain demographic of white, uneducated voters, Trump used the racial economic fear of white people to gain votes and win the election. He played on white voter’s fear that a person of color is taking the job they believe they deserve.
ReplyDeleteAnother factor that was important to this election was issues related to gender. Politics are largely dominated by men. Trump did not put his man hood on the shelf. Misogynistic statements did not completely ruin his campaign but they did raise opposition “The antipathy to Trump from women — college-educated, white, suburban women — transcends anything I’ve ever seen in politics,” Castellanos said. “And it’s not just against Trump’s policies, of course. It’s against Trump as the 1960s ‘Mad Men’ alpha male. It’s Trump who grabbed women where he shouldn’t. Women are coming out to vote against Donald Trump because they see him as a culturally regressive force that would undo the women’s march to equality,” (Phillip Parker Costa). All though Trump did well among white female voters, there is a large group of women who did not vote for him. This could set up an energy for the upcoming elections that highlights important gender issues in politics.
The president was successful in acquiring the white vote in the 2016 election, but looking ahead candidates may want to better target demographics like younger voters. In the 2016 election younger people (18-35) could have turned out to vote more. In the 2018 election it is likely that more millennials and younger people will turn up to vote “Young people are energized and fired up about the elections this year,” Bercow of NextGen America said. “A lot of people now understand, not that they didn’t before, that elections have consequences and who you put in office really matters,” (Yost). Candidates need to continue to talk about the issues that are important to the younger demographic.
In general, older voters tend to go to the ballet more. This may be that older folk’s feels their issues are payed attention to, so the older generations are motivated to go out and vote. It could be that older voters feel it is their duty to vote more so than millennials. Perhaps it’s time that politicians better address the issues that millennials and younger generations are impacted by.
Works Cited
Balz, Dan. "A Fresh Look Back at 2016 Finds America with an Identity Crisis." Washington Post, 15 September 2018.
Rucker, Philip, Ashley Parker, and Robert Costa. "The Party of Men: Kavanaugh Fight Risks Worsening the Trump GOP’s Gender Problem." Washington Post, 23 Sept. 2018.
Yost, Laina. "More Young People Plan to Vote this Year. But Their Key Issues May Surprise You." Yahoo News. 1 June 2018.
Rick Lessard
ReplyDeleteThe 2016 election seemed to polarize the country’s varying demographics more than any other election in recent memory. The most prominent groups that seemed to have all the focus were millennials, women, and the base of Trump supporters. These three very loud groups will only become louder and more vital in the upcoming election of 2020.
A large portion of millennials finally reached voting age within the country around the time of 2016. It already seems that millennials have taken the torch of political advocacy with such groups like March for our Lives. Strangely enough, millennials have acquired a horrible reputation as “serial killers”. It seems that every other month, an article comes out blaming Millennials of killing off some other form of US industry like malls or chain restaurants. As Russell Dalton writes, “On the other hand, a growing percentage of the young have delayed their careers, marriage and children, which delays their political involvement.” (Dalton 3) The younger generation grew up during one of the worst financial crises in recent American history. Millennials were surrounded by older generations telling them how bad things are because of the Great Recession. Not only that but most older Millennials are surrounded by crushing student loans. Liana Yost explains in a study, “The study found that the top two issues young Americans are most concerned about are the economy and social inequality.” (Yost 1) This only solidifies the anxiety that Millennials have toward money and jobs.
Along with Millennials, women have increased their importance as a demographic. It was amazing how much of that gender issues played a role in the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton became the first woman to win a nomination for president from a major political party in America. It does not need to be said how monumental it would have been if Clinton was elected President. She used this fact to her advantage which led to the inevitable curmudgeon of women around the country. “As one millennial, Holly Scheer, wrote in an op-ed for the Federalist website, “Should sisterhood of all women dictate that when one of us steps up, the rest need to fall in line to support her?”” (Denton 184) Part of Feminism is having being able to have a choice on who to vote for regardless of gender representation. The Clinton campaign team seemed to be obtuse to this fact and this was one of the reasons why Hillary lost the election. “Exit polls revealed that although women voted against Trump by one of the largest margins in history, noncollege women voted for Trump two to one and he carried and evangelical white women by double digits.” (Denton 179) This finding only seemed more ironic after the various things Trump said during the campaign that was in blatant disrespect of women.
Rick Lessard
DeleteThe 2020 election will be a very interesting one with demographics like Millennials and woman really flexing their political muscles. President Trump showed that a campaign can be won using social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Whoever is running in the 2020 election needs to focus on the growing number of Millennials and women voters. They also need to focus on Trump’s base. After the economy fell in 2008, there was a growing sentiment of Americans, lower Middle class, who felt abandoned. Trump captured that zeitgeist of disenfranchised Americans and still constantly strokes it ego. The base feels like Trump is finally attending to their nagging needs. While the President does this, Millennials and women feel like they are now being forgotten by the government. One can agree, that it is a very exciting, if not anxious time, for American politics.
Works Cited
Dalton, Russell. "Why Don’t Millennials Vote?" Washington Post, 22 March 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/22/why-dont-millennials-vote/?utm_term=.c7d9316e1391
Yost, Laina. "More Young People Plan to Vote this Year. But Their Key Issues May Surprise You." Yahoo News. 1 June 2018.
Denton Jr., Robert E., ed. The 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign: Political Communication and Practice. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2017.
Isaac Bauer
ReplyDeleteThe 2016 election came right after our nation’s first African-American president, a time when many white conservatives were very upset with government and felt like their livelihoods were under “attack” by forced liberal values. Between the two candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, both were older and white, and both had wealth. From the article “Obama and Trump both bent demographic trends to win. Can Trump repeat in 2020?” by Dan Balz, it references how the minority vote played a big role the 2012 election, where African-American voters surpassed white voters for the very first time. Non-white voters completely supported Obama, and while the white turnout for Mitt Romney was substantially high, it still sagged enough to elect a democratic president. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in the 2016 election with a comparable voting demographic as Obama, however minority voter turnout went from 66 percent to just 60 percent. The battleground states that Trump won were simply a result of white voter turnout beating minority voter turnout, where in the 2012 election it was minority voter turnout beating white voter turnout. For the 2020 election, I think that the millennial voting bloc, as well as the minority voting block will make a big impact in the 2020 election, and that a surge of young voters will help make a difference. From the article “Will Millennials be the Largest Voting Bloc in 2018, as Rock the Vote Predicts?” by Amy Sherman, there is data that shows how Millennial and Gen X voters combined have surpassed Boomers and older voters for the first time in many years. The millennial and Gen X votes combined can result in a much stronger voting bloc then previous years, and hopefully surpassing the strength of older, white voters. As more and more millennials reach voting age, our voice grows louder and louder. With the state of the government, I feel that millennial voters will feel a responsibility that they must take action in government. I feel very passionate to vote in the midterms, and I hope that goes the same for the millions of eligible millennial voters in the country.
Works cited:
Balz, Dan. “Analysis | Obama and Trump Both Bent Demographic Trends to Win. Can Trump Repeat in 2020?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 4 Aug. 2018,
Sherman, Amy. “Will Millennials Be the Largest Voting Bloc in 2018?” @Politifact, www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/feb/13/will-millennials-be-largest-voting-bloc-2018-rock-/.
PART 1 Charlotte Gardner
ReplyDeleteThe 2016 election was unlike any other election in the past. In this election, many people felt personally discriminated against by the candidates, and by Trump in particular. However, with Hillary Clinton, she essayed to make historical strides for women by becoming the first female president. That being said, there were many issues involving race, ethnicity, religion and class throughout the election. Focusing on race and ethnicity, the Trump campaign was able to gain many supporters of many different backgrounds, but isolated the majority of minorities. With Trump’s wish to build a wall to separate the U.S and Mexican border, many people of hispanic descent felt targeted. Especially so after Trump continued to reference to Mexicans as criminals on his social media. Another issue with race that occurred during the Trump campaign was his endorsement from the KKK. The KKK’s newspaper, The Crusader, officially endorsed Trump which raised many issues that centered on race. During Hillary’s campaign, I didn’t notice any issues with race, but I did notice that she had some issues with the gender of her potential voters. Because she was a woman, many people felt that she was unfit to serve as president because of her sex, and these beliefs were shared by both men and women alike. This belief was only heightened by her appeared submission to her cheating husband and the unrelated email scandal that tarnished her image. But, many people thought her sex was an advantage. Women all over the country sided with her as a candidate because of its historical impact. Many women had hope because of Clinton and believed that if she became president, it would pave the way for women to be able to obtain higher positions in the workplace and society. An issue with class could be seen with both main candidates. Because of her campaign, many people, Democrats in particular have been encouraged to vote for more women for office, “Democrats have embraced the #MeToo movement to galvanize female voters and attempt to lift scores of female candidates to victory in November’s midterm elections. A growing number of Democratic women are also considering presidential campaigns in 2020” (Rucker, Parker, Costa). Clinton faced some issues because many people thought that she ran on the basis that her experience made her better than the other candidates, and that her ivy-league education made her superior as well.
PART 2 Charlotte Gardner
DeleteAlthough I was never personally affected by this and don’t think she used these things to create and superior image to herself, I can see how people would think this. Trump himself, also deals with problems centered around the elite. At many of his rallies, he referred to his supporters as the “new elite”, sparking some issues about class. With the U.S government regressing in human rights (ICE) and longstanding and unresolved race issues, I think a focus on equality needs to be the platform for the next election. I think each candidate needs to encompass all races, genders, religions and classes because relations between each of those aspects are thinning out and are getting closer to breaking each day. The hate and tension between the polarized groups in our country has been growing every day and it feels like this country has been sent back in time. I think much more needs to happen for people to vote because it seems like it’s only long-time voters now. But, according to The Washington Post, it is not for a lack of interest, “In short, the widening participation gap between the less involved youth and the very involved elders in 2014 might not mean that millennials – or ‘kids these days’ — don’t care. Rather, it could be that the long slope of differences by life stage is getting steeper, with less involvement in youth and more involvement in later life. And even this widening participation gap is largely based on millennials reluctance to vote, while remaining engaged in other ways” (Dalton). Taylor Swift made an instant impact once she shared her political views this week, so I think celebrities coming forward and inspiring their followers to vote is a very good step, albeit it’s very millennial.
Works Cited
Dalton, Russell. “Why Don't Millennials Vote?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Mar. 2016,
www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/22/why-dont-millennials-vote/?utm_term=.058f5359b456.
Rucker, Phillip, et al. “The Party of Men: Kavanaugh Fight Risks Worsening the Trump GOP's Gender
Problem.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 23 Sept. 2018,
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-party-of-men-kavanaugh-fight-risks-worsening-the-trump-gops-gender-problem/2018/09/23/37d2dd88-bdb5-11e8-b7d2-0773aa1e33da_story.html?utm_term=.a403a02f702f.
(my works cited keeps getting messed in in this box I'm sorry)
Cali Kees
ReplyDeleteProfessor Burns
Blog Post #6
09, October 2018
Issues regarding gender, race, ethnicity, age, religion and class like every election played a major role in the 2016 election. In this particular election a strong, independent, female ran against a male, entrepreneur turned reality TV star. Gender played a particularly large role in this election as Clinton, if she won, would become the first female President. She would be “breaking the glass ceiling” challenging and defying many Americans expectations. Some, had an issue with Clinton purely because she was a woman others embraced and supported her because of that same reason. Some of the things Trump said about women and the sexual assault allegations brought to light during the campaign and after also kept gender at the forefront of conversation in 2016. Race and ethnicity were brought up often, again, based off Trumps comments that were sometimes racist and discriminatory. Race was also important when voting came around as whites mostly voted Trump and minorities voted Clinton. Age came to play in the sense of who the candidates were targeting their messages to, for Clinton she targeted the youth of America and her messages really resonated with them. In a New York Times article, "Political Bubbles and Hidden Diversity: Highlights From a Very Detailed Map of the 2016 Election,” the Upshot staff commented upon a very detailed voting map based on voting precinct the New York Times made. In it the Upshot staff wrote, "Young voters and voters with postgraduate degrees strongly preferred Mrs. Clinton in 2016, and it’s not surprising when these voters are packed into the confines of a college campus and its surroundings,” (The Upshot staff 3). They use Knox County, Ohio as an example—while Trump won the county, in the village of Gambier where Kenyon College is the Voters here gave Clinton 90% of their vote. Trump on the other hand, targeted the older voters who were looking for a change in politics. In the article, "Obama and Trump both bent demographic trends to win. Can Trump repeat in 2020?,” Dan Balz, of the Washington Post wrote, that in the states that decided the election the people in those counties were, " “ripe for a message that favored older, disconnected white voters,” (Balz 3). Trump gave that message that they were looking for.
I think in past years’ candidates have really geared many of their messages to the younger generations of voters but I think in 2020, candidates need to realize that this age group is not very reliable. In the 2016 election the white, older, uneducated voter bloc really came out, I think this is a new group that candidates never really considered and now really need to based off of how this bloc had such an impact in this past election. I don’t think that young voters should be forgotten and I think candidates should still focus time on them I just think they need to focus more time and energy on older more reliable groups of voters. Older voters will always be more engaged because many of the policies and key issues that are discussed come election time pertains directly to them. The 18-21 voting bloc is not typically worried about foreign policy, social security, taxes because they do not believe these issues directly pertain to them yet (when often times these issues do). Also to the younger generations voting is a hassle, this voting bloc does not often go out of the way to do anything that does not positively affect them.
Works Cited
Balz, Dan. "Obama and Trump both Bent Demographic Trends to Win. can Trump Repeat in 2020?." The Washington Post, 4 August 2018, 2018.
The Upshot Staff. “Political Bubbles and Hidden Diversity: Highlights From a Very Detailed Map of the 2016 Election.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 July 2018, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/07/25/upshot/precinct-map- highlights.html.
Sensitive topics like gender, race, ethnicity, age, religion, and class played a huge divisive role in the 2016 presidential election. The clear age gap between a majority of voters was one of the biggest causes for contention even leading up to the primaries where millennials strongly favored Bernie Sanders and the Baby Boomers leaned toward Trump’s “conservative” ideals. This gap turned into a war of “you’re too young to know what you want in government!” and “you guys are gonna be dead soon anyway, so why should you get to decide our future?”. Crass, I know, but that was one of the most popular arguments I heard leading up to the election. When all of this was going down, beginning in 2015, I was just entering my freshman year of college as a journalism major, which exposed me to all angles of coverage on potential candidates. In an exercise where we had to write a letter to a potential candidate, I chose to write to Bernie Sanders himself because I felt that he believed in my future as a female in America.
ReplyDeleteGender was another battleground in the presidential election, especially since Hillary Clinton was almost our first woman president (sigh). Yet somehow, despite the fact that Trump is a compulsive liar and has proven that his character is more questionable than Trump Steaks at Sharper Image, the far right prefer him over having an “emotional woman” in office. This newfound forgiveness within the Republican party did not stop after the elections were over, however. As this CNN article puts it, “Before and since entering the White House, President Donald Trump has shown himself to be a remarkably prolific liar. There is no bogus detail too small, no claim too unbelievable, that Trump will not promote it in service of his preferred narrative.” (Krieg). A popular conservative website called New Republic wrote about her “annoying voice” in 2015, comparing her shrill inflections to that of a “nagging wife” (Reeve). Despite her decades of academic and political accomplishments, in addition to her grace in the public eye following her husband’s Oval Office scandal, the right continuously labels her as unfit for office based on her gender. This attack on womanhood angered girls and women alike both nationally and internationally, sparking a movement behind Clinton that she turned into her slogan: “I’m with Her.”
Ethnicity and religion were often mentioned simultaneously by Trump during the 2016 presidential election, mostly because he often does not know the difference. His outspoken hatred of Muslims and, quite frankly, all people of color was a huge building block for his supporters. Namely, he had (and still has) a problem with Mexicans in particular. “Build that wall!” became a rally cry whenever he publicly spoke, and the racism veiled as pseudo-patriotism became a safe space for extremists. Hate groups suddenly felt comfortable going public again, and neo Nazis began publicly endorsing Trump. Trump’s divisive rhetoric was shocking at the time, but in hindsight it is sadly commonplace under his hand. The New Yorker chronicled his rise to favoritism among White Nationalists in August 2015, quoting him as saying, “[Mexico is] sending people that have lots of problems.” (…) “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” (Osnos). The article goes on to fact-check Trump, pointing out that “the crime rate among first-generation immigrants is lower than that for native-born Americans—but Trump takes an expansive view of reality.” (Osnos).
In regard to class, Trump was clear on where he stood from the start: he was going to give tax breaks to the rich while promising to help out the middle class in a system that Hillary called “Trumped up trickle down economics” on the campaign trail. As our textbook puts it, who a candidate presents themselves to be is often one of the most effective tools of persuasion. Trump framed himself as what the Republicans wanted him so desperately to be: a breath of conservative air following 8 years of Obama. Accodrding to Denton, “Candidate persona (…) shapes voter perceptions and performance-based traits, positions candidates as scam artist or “good king”, (…) and contributes to agenda setting.” (Denton 153). Trump made a lot of middle class voters feel seen and heard, despite the fact that many of his middle class supporters flipped on him after he grew more and more extreme into his presidency.
ReplyDeleteIn order to reall get a grip on up-and-coming voters, candidates for the 2020 presidential election need to zero in on millennials. I know that trying to get younger generations involved has been an issue faced by many campaigners in the past, but I strongly feel that my rough age group (between 18 and 30ish) are more motivated than EVER to incite change, and we all know where change begins: the voting booth. In order to get younger voters involved, candidates need to make us feel more than just heard and seen; we need to feel understood and important. We are so tired of being chalked up as whiney do-nothings who couldn’t do anything for ourselves if our lives depended on it. My generation is on track to be among the most educated ever according to Pew Research. This positive trend is especially apparent among women millennials, which is no surprise because I know more powerful young women with strong minds than I could possibly count. If a candidate wants to know how to specifically target millennial women, the answer is simple: it is not that simple. We must be politically courted. We must be intellectually wooed by policy. We must be convinced that you have our best intentions at heart in terms of healthcare and equal wages, otherwise we’ll vote you out of office with the power of 311,000,000 “nasty women”.
Denton Jr., Robert E., ed. The 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign: Political Communication and Practice. New York:
Palgrave MacMillan, 2017.
Krieg, Gregory. “How Can Trump Lie so Much and Be 'Authentic' at the Same Time? Here's
One Explanation.” CNN, Cable News Network, 5 May 2018,
www.cnn.com/2018/05/05/politics/trumps-lies-authentic-to-his-supporters/index.html. “Millennials On Track to Be the Most Educated Generation to Date.” Pew Research Center, Pew
Research Center, 17 Mar. 2015, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/16/how-
millennials-compare-with-their-grandparents/ft_millennials-education_031715/.
Osnos, Evan. “Donald Trump and the White Nationalists.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker,
28 Aug. 2017, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/31/the-fearful-and-the-frustrated.
Reeve, Elspeth. “Why Do So Many People Hate the Sound of Hillary Clinton's Voice?” The New
Republic, New Republic, 1 May 2015, newrepublic.com/article/121643/why-do-so-
many-people-hate-sound-hillary-clintons-voice.
In the 2016 Presidential Election, demographics played a big role in who came out to vote on election day. Most interesting to me was that, as noted in a Washington Post article by Dan Balz, Demographer William H. Frey writes, “Obama won all of these states (except Iowa) in 2012 by gaining more votes from racial minorities than he lost to whites. Trump won by gaining more whites than he lost to racial minorities.” This means that in the battle ground states of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Carolina and Florida for the same reason that Obama did, but due to a different voter demographic. Obama was able to motivate more racial minorities to get out and vote because he himself is a racial minority. However, Trump is notoriously unfavorable by racial minorities because of his support of the radical right, the KKK, and neo-Nazis (Denton, 207). Trump spent a lot of time in these states being sure to go out and rally his base. It seems as though Clinton was banking on the fact that these states voted blue in 2012, so surely they would vote blue again in 2016 and that Trump’s unpopularity with racial minorities would motivate them to go out and vote against him.
ReplyDeleteIn the 2020 election Democrats will most likely aim for younger voters as they tend to lean more to the left than older voters (Prof. Courtney Marchese and Christina Popik, 17). Right now you’re starting to see more Democrats sending out messages encouraging people to register to vote, most likely aimed at young eligible voters who haven’t yet registered to vote. If they can get the millennial demographic to register to vote and actually get out and vote on election day, Democrats may have more success this upcoming November and in 2020. Republicans, on the other hand, will focus mainly on the baby boomer and silent generations in order to get their votes. People from these two age demographics turn out to vote more often and in higher numbers than millennials and they tend to lean more to the right and vote republican more often than not (Prof. Courtney Marchese and Christina Popik, 17). By focusing mostly on this generation not only will Republicans motivate these two demographics to vote, they will also be alienating millennials which could deter them from voting. Gen X will be an interesting demographic to watch in upcoming elections because, even though they do lean more left, the ideological scale is far more balanced than that of millennials (Prof. Courtney Marchese and Christina Popik, 17).
Older voters could be more politically engaged than younger voters for a few reasons. The first being that they may better understand the issues and how they impact them. That’s not to say that younger voters don’t care, older voters are just more likely to care about social security and medicare. This could have something to do with a lack of civic education in schools. From personal experience, I have seen elementary aged students go from not knowing or caring about the government to being excited about participating simply based on a change in their civic education. If schools had better education about civics and the government and encouraged more students to have, explore, and discuss their beliefs starting at a young age then maybe more young voters would feel connected to the issues and understand their impact. In the same vein, young voters don’t have as much of a sense of civic responsibility as older voters. Older voters view voting as a patriotic act and as a part of being American. However, many younger voters feel disillusioned and have less faith in the government. This results in a lower feeling of civic responsibility and can make younger voters feel as though their vote doesn’t matter. We are starting to see a shift though, at least with young people being more involved in political discourse, which is a start.
DeleteWork Cited
Analysis | Obama and Trump both bent demographic trends to win. Can Trump repeat in 2020? (2018, August 04). Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-and-trump-both-bent-demographic-trends-to-win-can-trump-repeat-in-2020/2018/08/04/fac683f6-9805-11e8-a679-b09212fb69c2_story.html
E., D. J. (2017). The 2016 US Presidential Campaign Political Communication and Practice. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Marchese, C., Prof., & Popik, C. (2018). 2018 Midterm Election Guide.
Sophie Rodgers
ReplyDeleteDr. Burns
MSS 349-01
9 October, 2018
Demographic blocs, such as race, ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status, have played big roles in national elections for decades. The 2016 presidential election was no exception to this: we saw many distinct voting patterns among certain groups of people. However, the way each candidate appealed to those demographic blocs led to a few deviations from the norm in terms of voter habits. It seems to me that the two main factors that influenced voters were education levels and age, with other demographics further influencing those groups.
The gap between college-educated and non college-educated voters had a big impact on 2016’s election results. Trump “won an overwhelming share of those without a college degree”, with voters with some college education or less preferring Trump by an 8 point margin (Tyson, Maniam). According to 2016 exit polls, Trump’s gain over Clinton for white, non college- educated voters was simply unprecedented. The Pew Research Center found that “Two-thirds (67%) of non-college whites backed Trump, compared with just 28% who supported Clinton, resulting in a 39-point advantage for Trump among this group” (Tyson, Maniam). This is “by far the widest gap in support among college graduates and non-college graduates in exit polls dating back to 1980” (Tyson, Maniam). Among women, education also came into play. While women as a whole still voted against Trump, “non college women voted for Trump two to one” (Denton). Clinton, naturally, worked on securing the opposite demographics. Voters with college degrees “backed Clinton by a 9-point margin (52%-43%)” (Tyson, Mariam). This education gap can be seen when we look at election results geographically, as well. A New York Times map of the country’s voting results by precinct revealed that, in many instances, people living near cities or college campuses leaned towards Hillary, while those living in more rural areas leaned toward Trump, even if the counties surrounding those people leaned in the opposite direction. The village of Gambier, Ohio, which houses Kenyon College, gave Clinton 90% of their vote, even though they were located within a very red county (Upshot Staff).
Age was also a key aspect of which way people voted. Younger voters “preferred Clinton over Trump by a wide 55%-37% margin”, while voters age 65 and older “preferred Trump over Clinton 53%-45%” (Tyson, Mariam). However, Clinton did not secure as many young voters as her predecessor Barack Obama did in the past two elections. In 2012, Obama’s advantage in this age group over Mitt Romney was 60%-30%, and his advantage over John McCain in 2008 was 66%-32% (Tyson, Mariam).
(part 2)
DeleteWhy were these trends so prominent? Non college-educated people made up a big part of a group that felt threatened by the Democrat’s agenda of social change. Many of these were what a study by the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group called American preservationists, who “tend to be America-first nativists who are socially conservative and opposed to immigration, and may feel culturally threatened” (Newman). It was well-documented that many working-class white voters felt that immigrants and people of other ethnic groups were taking jobs and opportunities from what they felt were more deserving citizens. With immigration as such a key issue in the election, people’s “attitudes on racial issues accounted for the ‘diploma divide’ between less and better educated whites” (Newman). In terms of age, older people have always been more conservative than younger ones. In this election in particular, many counties in states that ended up deciding the president had populations of whites that outnumber younger people and minority groups. Those counties were “‘ripe for a message that favored older, disconnected white voters’” (Balz). Clinton’s case was, of course, much different, and very interesting. Younger voters, aged 18 to 29, preferred Clinton- but not all of them. In terms of women, Clinton appealed to first and second-wave feminists, but not third-wave feminists, the most recent generation. These women “largely stayed home compared to previous elections”, and those who did vote for Clinton “did so with some degree of ambivalence” (Denton). These women, myself included, didn’t want Clinton to be the precedent for the first female president; she wasn’t progressive enough. Clinton came off as someone who “empowers women who are already powerful”, while third wave feminists were looking for someone who would help lift struggling groups up (Denton).
The demographic blocs in the 2016 election were confusing, new, and powerful. Only time will tell if the same patterns occur during this year’s midterm elections.
Works Cited
Balz, Dan. “Analysis | A Fresh Look Back at 2016 Finds America with an Identity Crisis.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 15 Sept. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-fresh-look-back-at-2016-finds-america-with-an-identity-crisis/2018/09/15/0ac62364-b8f0-11e8-94eb-3bd52dfe917b_story.html?utm_term=.668b4886bc67&wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1.
Balz, Dan. “Analysis | Obama and Trump Both Bent Demographic Trends to Win. Can Trump Repeat in 2020?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 4 Aug. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-and-trump-both-bent-demographic-trends-to-win-can-trump-repeat-in-2020/2018/08/04/fac683f6-9805-11e8-a679-b09212fb69c2_story.html?utm_term=.2e87475b86b6&wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1.
“Chapter 7: Issues of Gender in the 2016 Presidential Campaign.” The 2016 US Presidential Campaign Political Communication and Practice, by Denton Jr Robert E., Springer International Publishing, 2017, pp. 179–203.
Newman, Rick. “Why Trump Supporters Never Waver.” Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo!, 26 July 2018, finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-supporters-never-waver-185256151.html.
Staff, The Upshot. “Political Bubbles and Hidden Diversity: Highlights From a Very Detailed Map of the 2016 Election.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 July 2018, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/07/25/upshot/precinct-map-highlights.html.
Tyson, Alec, and Shiva Maniam. “Behind Trump's Victory: Divisions by Race, Gender and Education.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 9 Nov. 2016, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/behind-trumps-victory-divisions-by-race-gender-education/.