Do Modern American Campaigns Advance Democracy?
Do Modern American Campaigns Advance Democracy?
Of course, campaigns are necessary in any democracy, whether they are simple or complex. Simple campaigns involve only the candidate giving a single speech or even a few speeches, but regardless a campaign still exists. In today’s American sense, campaigns are a lot more complex. They involve primaries, conventions, numerous speeches, cross-country travel, and a humongous campaign staff. These campaigns are necessary because they inform the public of what candidates they are voting for in the upcoming elections. One of the main problems however is that sometimes these campaigns can be harmful to the democratic system. No one doubts that they are necessary, since the public cannot vote blind; however, there is a debate about how much is necessary. Some of the aspects of a modern campaign may decrease an election’s democratic aspects. However, the public has the choice to vote or not, and if a campaign turns them away, then that is a conscious choice. They are not forced to not vote, they have chosen to do it. Even if campaigns turn people away from voting, they still do not affect how democratic a government is. Campaigns advance democracy, because they give people a choice of what to do with their vote, and also show the voting public exactly who they are voting for.
One of the main arguments that campaigns decrease levels of democracy is the declining level of election turnout over the past few decades (Geer lecture). Turnout is right around fifty percent of the total population, and only seventy-five percent of those eligible voters who are registered. The argument states that campaigns are too long and that the negative ads, or attack ads, turn voters away from elections. The never-ending campaign is also a problem. Even though a president may have just started his term, parties talk about who their candidates for the next election will be as soon as the past election is over, which makes could possibly make voters disgusted in how parties get a candidate elected, then immediately look ahead. Another argument against modern campaigns are negative/attack ads. These are ads in which one candidate attacks the other’s policies or morals and does not spend any time on their own policies. These ads can be completely negative and simply attack the morality of a candidate, which sometimes hurts the person who is doing the...