The Rationalizing Voter: Chapter Analysis

1. For the most part, citizens are politically knowledgeable in some types of instances. Polls have shown that they are not very knowledgeable. Polls may only show the most ephemeral and transitory of opinion (Asher, 242). Little thought might have gone through into the response that the public has offered. Another reason is that there is no majority view of the issues. Thirdly, the poll’s results ignore the process of how opinions are formed and modified (Asher, 242). The media and political leaders also shape up the citizen’s political knowledge. Such an example like drugs might be more salient or in the popular consciousness if it is talked all the time by the media and political leaders. However, if the media

I've noticed quite a lot of people referring to 8 Trump winning an 8-year term. Both those for and against Trump have done this. Perhaps if more people actually paid attention, we might not have ended with the two worse choices. Sadly, most don't know enough to fully comprehend what their votes (President, Senate, House, etc.) truly means.

Not long ago, it was frowned upon for therapists focused on psychology to make any political comment/statement, but The Political Brain by Drew Westen is a book that does exactly that. By using this book as evidence, Westen elaborates as to why appealing to the positive emotions in voters will gain a candidate more votes.

Whether by exit/entrance, in-person, internet, or telephone, over time, political polls have been used by mass media outlets to strategically create interest groups and objectively measure public opinion. Political scientist, V.O. Key, Jr., described public opinion as “those opinions held by private persons which government finds it prudent to head.” The media relies on polls the right amount because it’s only a general sample and doesn’t include every potential factor such as question ambiguity, non-response, and non-attitudes. In addition, as discussed in lecture, many citizens are unconnected, uninformed, or inconsistent in their ideologies. Given these potential errors, the media’s use of polls has a mixed effect. On one hand, polls are able to keep audiences updated in public opinion and political

No politicians can be all things to all individuals, however especially gifted politicians can be sufficient things to enough individuals to construct an intense coalition utilizing political skill. This election cycle gives new importance and gratefulness to political skill and impression management (IM). Indeed, even Donald Trump is utilizing it further bolstering his good fortune. The most noteworthy is his capacity to induce individuals to bolster him by suspending their most profound, deep rooted convictions (Gearson, 2016). This paper will compress and interface the similitudes between political skill and IM while touching on the significance of why managing your political behavior can influence productivity and performance in the

Politics affect the lives of every single American, yet the US voter turnout rate is only roughly 55 percent as of 2012 (Peters 1). As a country and population, Americans are constantly chastised for their low or otherwise inadequate political involvement. One can see, in reference to American politics, that there are three main ideas toward politics-- and there’s clearly a ranking within them. Americans take one of three stances toward politics: positive, neutral, and negative, in order of how helpful these views are to our political system.

Almost every American in the U.S votes on the grounds that they have a strong feeling of civic duty that informs them that they ought to vote. Informing individuals how frequently they have voted formerly and as well as informing individuals how frequently their neighbors have voted rises the turnout of voters. Furthermore, mostly all of the campaigns depend on ads that make their opponents look bad, in short, attacking their opponent by posting negative ads. Therefore, negative ads engender votes. In addition, private polls assist candidates in enlightening them what individuals desire. These private polls provide only general advice about what campaign themes or tactics should be utilized as well as avoided. One of the explanations voters

The most important and popularized moment in American Political verve is the presidential election process. As Nathan Myhrvold once said, “Elections, for their part, are typically popularity contests rather than measures of candidates' relative competency or effectiveness. Imagine if scientific truth were determined according to which scientist was most popular. To be successful, scientists would have to be charismatic and attractive - and human knowledge would suffer terribly”. Because politics are so far from the average American Joe, the virtue of elections has lost its way into a high school class election where the jock wins over the head cheerleader. Evidently, Americans are now encouraged if not obliged to take part of a natural right,

Research findings of political discourse analysis (Van Dijk, 1997, 2006; Chilton, 2004; Solheim, 2006) indicate that politicians tend to establish the 'us' versus 'them' dichotomy. Representing others include conceptualizing them as tidal waves, threat, with “a chip on their shoulder” (Van Dijk, 1997, p. 52), “dangerous eruptions” (Van Dijk, 2002, p. 206) or "rivers of blood" (Chilton, 2004, p.111). These conceptual representations help politicians frame the public mind and draw on conceptual images to promote their side of the story and secure the delegitimization of the other. Conceptualizations are realized through the use of discursive features, including

The crux of this article was in its ability to lay a groundwork for the often inharmonious thoughts, backgrounds, and beliefs of voters when they go to the polls. The paper shows that when these come in conflict with each other, voters most often fall back on previous voting habits to find direction at the polls, and it is this correlation that so heavily influences the habit forming nature of voting. They therefore discount the standardized recounting of habit formation in voting, and instead place their model on the pedestal of truth in this venture. The authors belief is that there is more going on in this scenario, and yet it is conversely simpler in explanation: voters are conflicted and therefore fall back to previous points of clarity and surety. This article was tremendously valuable by merit of its deviation from the standard literature on the subject, and empirical analysis of the data, as well as data collection.

Public opinion is an important aspect of democracy. ThisS is the view(s) commonly held among the general public. These are sets of attitude that shapes a group which either helps improve the quality or efficiency of an issue or agenda. The article puts forth its thesis as the influence of systematic issue attention cycle which strongly influences public attitude and behavior concerning most domestic problems. The public engage in election and choose their representative/leader, therefore; they have the right to voice out their opinion on certain issues. Public opinion is a form of political participation.

Blais, A. (2000). To vote or not to vote?. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press.

With politics, people tend to discuss their opinions and thoughts on policy rather openly, and as seen by the last election, very aggressively. Thus, if one individual in the specified demographic group being studied expresses a view that is different from the rest of the group, they fear ostracization by their friends, and thus shift their views to match the views of their reference group. Additionally, if the reference group has certain perceptions of people who are outside the group, the individual may adapt these ideas to fit in with the rest of the group. This is due to the normative influence of the group on the

The history of the agenda-setting theory goes back over 50 years to when it was introduced in a 1972 edition of Public Opinion Quarterly by Drs. Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw. It was first developed as a means of studying the 1968 American presidential election as it relates to the most important issues determined by the news media and the most important issues determined by the 100 residents of Chapel Hill, North Carolina (McCombs & Shaw, 1972). Still relevant today, the agenda setting theory explains the influence of the media agenda on the public agenda. In a comprehensive analysis of the agenda-setting theory, agenda setting includes three levels or psychological processes: basic agenda setting, attribute agenda setting and network agenda setting.