Unit 1 Lesson 2

9/25/24

Conservatives: valuing economic freedom

Libertarian: wants liberty and freedom. 

Democrats: big candidates near the centrist and libertarian party

Where do we get our political ideology from? Where do we get our political influence from?

• The lack of regulation on tech companies causes social experiments that cause people to make wrongful decisions.  

• Also family influence

What are the roles of political parties: 

• To bring citizens to their cause and win the elections. (being able to run a country in the way they think is more efficient.)

Types of party systems: 

• Democratic, Republican, third parties (not very known parties) 

Political socialization: 

• how people develop political knowledge (social media, parents, tv,)  Political socialization changes based on family and background, school community, peers and groups, media, and events. 

What are political parties: 

• Political parties are different candidates to run for presidential elections, Senate, etc. 

• An organized group of people

• Goal-Oriented (The goal is to get elected to change policies) 

• Seeks elected office to achieve its goals

• You have to nominate candidates and propose policies 

• Organize voters, campaigns, and elections

Conservatives/Republicans: 

• more ideological, more likely to vote. (men, white, rich, south) more traditional, history, don't get exposure to other lifestyles. 

Liberal/Democrats: 

• Female, diverse, HS educated, middle incomes, cities, bigger states, and wider world views. 

The limitations of our political system irritate many

Political parties: A group of people that have similar ideas on how to run a government.

Federalists: More active governments

Democrats: limited governments more of people's choice

Roles of Political Parties: To win or to reach office. For smaller political parties it's to be able to hold influence on bigger political policies so they're ideas will be used when running the country. 

• Get people organized to show up and vote in order to support your cause. Parties nominate candidates to be the face of their party.

• Committees that make the parties work 

27% of people registered as democrats 

27% registered at republicans

Two party system is uncool 

Political Parties are NOT:

• A sports team (biraj can't make a sports team so)

• Just one person (dictatorship)

• All powerful (separation of powers, rule of law)

• Always Democrat vs. Republican (third parties exist)

Political Party Systems:

• Single Parties (communism)

  • Chinese

  • North Korea— dictatorship (and malnutrition, but Kim Jon-Un)

• Two-Party

  • United States 

• Multi-Party

  • Mexico

  • India 

  • Coalitians

• One politician doesn’t have all the powers

• The rule of law: no one is above the law

• Communist party: One person represents China to the rest of the world, and acts as a leader to the military, and people's armed police. 

• Single party: no choice

• Multi-party: multiple choices

• Two and three cant 

• Equitable distribution of resources: communism even though it's not! 

Urban populations- vote for Democrats

rural-vote for republicans

• Vast majority of people elected to Congress are men

• Republicans= more for Congress

• Senate= Democrats

• Congress= sucks for women, non-Christians, not white

• Winner doesn’t need to win -You need to win 50% plus one vote

• Wasted vote theory: throwing away your vote for small parties thinking they aren’t going to win. 

How to win an election

• What do you need to do?

  • Media, campaign support, party support, Voters

Senate you have to be 30 years, live in the state, 

• Elections: Qualifications

• Running for office: House-25 years/Senate-30 years/President- 35 years.

  • Minimum ages:25/30/35

    • Citizen: 7/9/14- years of living in a state

    • The goal of the Constitution- a democratic form of government so you need a representative 

• Elections: Process

  • Declare Candidacy 

  • File with FEC

  • Primaries:

    • Narrowing Candidates

      • DE: April 2, 2024

      • Super Tuesday: March 5, 2024

• Conventions

  • Republican National Convention (RNC): 7/14/24

  • Democratic National Convention (DNC): 8/19/24

Caucuses- public voting at a specific time

• Primary - secret booths and voting 

• Who can vote

• Semi-closed primaries- independents can pick one party

• Votes are given to delegates and then vortex to candidates.

• Primary Elections:

a

• The percentage of candidates who spend the most win. 

• halo

Lobbyists/ Special interest: 

SuperPAC

Electoral College -A body of electors established by the Constitution to elect the President and Vice President of the United States.

Special interests:

Lobbyists- 

SuperPACs & Non-profits 

Citizens United (2010)

1780’s was when the Electoral College was created. 

Key Terms: Liberal/Democrats: 

• Female, diverse, HS educated, middle incomes, cities, bigger states, and wider world views. 

Moderate:

Liberals are people who are focused on political equality and civil rights.

Moderate- Moderates are people that are those who believe in economic freedom and economic rights (tax cuts, free market, etc.)

Bipartisan- two members from two different parties 

Third Parties- smaller parties that aren’t acknowledged as much as the democrat and republican party. These parties try to make sure that their ideas are adapted to bigger parties and strive for a little bit of acknowledgement. 

Party platform- a way to outline goals of their party and is a plan to help gain votes

Conservative party: Supports a conservative ideology of family, christianity, american roots etc. (basically trying to conserve historical ways). Republicans are kind of a conservative party and often use conservative tactics to their advantage. 

Electoral college: 

• People from different states that are able to elect who the vice president and president are. 

• There are 538 electors but  Candidates running for president have to get at least 270 votes.  

• The amount of electoral votes a state can have is determined by the number of senate per state (two for all states) and number of representatives from each state which depends on the amount of population.

• Sometimes popular votes from citizens don’t matter which is why people are trying to get the electoral college removed

Election qualifications:  Running for office: House-25 years/Senate-30 years/President- 35 years.

• Minimum ages:25/30/35

  • Citizen: 7/9/14- years of living in a state

  • The goal of the Constitution- a democratic form of government so you need a representative 

Primary elections

• PAC (political action 

community) 

• Groups that contribute to political campaigns 

• Can give money to candidates limit of $5000

• Must report spending and donors to the  FEC

• SuperPAC 

• Can spend an unlimited amount of money, as long as it is spent “independently” (independent meaning it can raise as much as it wants and can spend as much as it wants on election candidates.) 

• Not allowed to to work with candidates to work together on spending 

• Super Pacs have spent 3 billion since 2010. 

• Must report spending and donors to the FEC

501c4 (taxed exempt designation for non-profit organizations)

• Prohibited by law for coordinating directly with a political candidate's campaign even IF their donations are going 100% to their campaign. 

• Used for non-profit organizations

• Can spend up to 49% of their spending towards political activities

• Not required to report spending and donors

• Campaign finance

• 501c4

  • Used for non-profit organizations

  • Exist for charitable purposes

  • Can spend up to 49% of their spending on political activities

  • Not required to report spending and donors

6. Apportionment and Requirements to Run for Office

• Apportionment is the act of dividing 435 seats into 50 states based on the state’s population

• The higher a state’s population, the higher the amount of representatives 

• To run for office you must have certain qualifications

  • Be a citizen of the United States

    • House - 7 years 

    • Senate - 9 years 

    • President - 4 years

  • Meet the age requirement

    • House - 25 years

    • Senate - 30 years

    • President - 35 years 

  • Appeal to voters

  • Run a campaign