Elections Test

One would think that it would take experience and good ideas for a person to be elected president, or to be elected for any political seat. But in all honesty, elections have turned out to be more about money and popularity than voting for the greater good and looking towards what the country needs.

For example, in the movie about Jeff Smith running for office, Smith didn’t have that much money or funds, and so he couldn’t use any high tech methods of getting his name out. That shows how nowadays, that sometimes the PACs and soft money mean more to a candidate in the long run. PACs make donations to candidates for corporations and trade unions. Without these, the candidates would have a lot less money and have to find new ways to get their name out and put themselves in the public eye. Jeff Smith had to go around and literally knock on everyone’s door so that they knew who he was. His competitors, on the other hand, were able to use extra money to send out glossy pamphlets and papers covered in witty slogans. Some of the money they used was probably also soft money, the money not given directly to the candidate but it helps the candidate out. Jeff Smith really only had hard money, the money acquired from repetitive funding from government and organizations. Since he didn’t have a big name in the business, not many companies funded him and therefore he had to work harder to get his name out.

Another example for why today’s political environment isn’t truly democratic is because of media bias. Media bias is when different media stations send out different messages to people about candidates. One television news station might lean more liberal while another might lean more conservative. Many times, different news stations will push more towards one political party than another. Political parties are the denominations such as democrat and republican, that are shown to have different views about a wide variety of subjects. And these views that they push onto the viewers really change how the audience thinks and what they believe they should vote for. And the media bias doesn’t just stop at political bias, it can also be personal. A news station might rave about one politician and rant about another, when really, the candidates are equal in their own ways. The way that the media talks about people, especially candidates, really changes how the audience views them.

One last example for why elections are no longer truly democratic is voter turnout. Voter turnout is how many people show up to vote for political elections. Really, only the people who have taken the time to learn about the candidates come out to vote. Some citizens are just too lazy or uneducated to make a mature decision and therefore don’t come out to vote. Even though it isn’t “truly democratic”, since not everybody is throwing in their own two cents, I think that a low voter turnout is actually better for America. It would be bad to force people to vote, when they really don’t care or don’t have an opinion. Low turnout is good for elections because that means that only the people who have made an educated decision will vote, and those are the people we want voting for the future of our country.

So no, elections these days are definitely not purely democratic. It’s all a contest where money, the media, and voter turnout rule and the candidates are just along for the ride.