Today's Political Parties

-Selecting Candidates Select and Support -Selecting Candidates Voters choose candidates they believe best support the party’s ideas -Supporting Candidates Raise money for the campaign Help get ideas to voters Register people to vote -Patronage Giving jobs to your supporters Political party members, on all levels, help to support candidates by raising money for campaigns (usually through dinners and rallies), helping spread ideas to new voters, and registering people to vote. Sometimes, people who do a great deal of work for the political party and show major support will receive a job in the federal government through a system called patronage.

-Keep voters aware of party goals and objectives Information -Informing the Public -Keep voters aware of party goals and objectives -help candidates get elected to office -Methods?? Speeches and rallies Pamphlets/advertisements Create websites Political parties work to get information out to the public, not only about their candidates, but also about the ideas they want to accomplish in their party platforms. They do this through a series of public rallies and speeches, creating pamphlets, mailings, and advertisements, and creating websites about the candidates and the major issues.

Campaigning on the local level -Popular Sovereignty People’s Beliefs -Grassroots Movement -term applied to a political idea or movement that starts with citizen organization Campaigning on the local level -Popular Sovereignty -idea that people have the right to rule themselves Convince people to vote (for their candidate) -more involved citizens Get people involved in politics and elections The grassroots level is typically the most important to political parties, because they can start with the citizens and their interests and beliefs. For this reason, political parties work at this local level to try to get more citizens involved in politics and active in their democracy.

Grassroots Many people feel politics should be a very local concept. In other words, people of a community can govern themselves better.

-Political Parties keep watch over each other Watch Dogs -Political Parties keep watch over each other -why??? Look for mistakes or misuse of power Opposing party criticizes current party and offers solutions -insures good government Makes sure they do their job well -alerts citizens to corruption Do this with hopes of winning future elections Today, political parties serve as watch dogs to ensure good government. While the other party is in control (President, Congress, state levels), the other major parties wait for them to make mistakes. Then, they consistently point those mistakes out to the American public. While this works to ensure good government and alert citizens to corruption, they also do this to offer suggestions of how to do things better. That way, voters will pick their party in the next election.

Campaign Funding A campaign for a major office takes a lot of money. Parties raise money for the campaign and help get the candidates’ views across to the public. They make sure supporters are registered to vote and actually vote.

Propaganda Endorsements Glittering Generalities Bandwagon Stack Cards Name Calling “Just Plain Folks” Image Molding

Propaganda can sometimes be very racist.

Propaganda Endorsements – someone famous will support a candidate. Stacked Cards – only presenting one side of an issue Name-Calling – unpleasant statement about your opposing candidate Glittering Generality – a statement that sounds good, but is essentially meaningless.

Oprah used Endorsement Propaganda during Obama’s campaign.

The 2008 Campaign was filled with name-calling propaganda.

Propaganda Image Molding – using and misusing symbols when appealing to the public “Just Plain Folks” – candidates will present themselves as the everyday American citizen. Bandwagon – convincing people that everyone else supports a candidate, so you should too.

Linking Government -Parties help connect the different levels of government -President -Congress -Governors -State Legislatures -Local Governments If all are connected they can work together better Easier to attack mutual problems

-Parties are weaker today than in the past Party Roles Today -Parties are weaker today than in the past Confusion about party beliefs -less party loyalty Factions within the parties -more media influences -non-partisan elections -Elections that do not allow the use of political parties---usually for position that are seen as non-political such as school boards And judges (states) Today, political parties are weaker than they have been in the past. This is due partly to less party loyalty and confusion about party beliefs. Also, with the influence of modern media, parties have developed more moderate positions to attract more voters. Therefore, many people have no clear definition of what party membership means.