Elections have always been regarded as the means by which citizens get their voice heard. It is a way of participating in government and therefore a way of promoting democracy. Elections provide equal representation and equal opportunity among all citizens and therefore elections instill the idea of democracy in the United States government. However, in order for elections to continue being a place of democracy, attention needs to be brought back and re-centered around the main purpose of an election, which is for citizens to be heard and for policy to be implemented.
In an ideal world, all citizens would be able to actively participate in democracy and have a prominent role in government decision-making. Hudson makes many references to the ideal democracy resembling what the Athenians used to have. Considering the large scale of the current United States population, it would be impossible to participate and be as active as the Athenians were. Elections remain the main way a citizen can participate in their government and promote the idea of democracy. Elections provide and equal opportunity for representation among all citizens, which make elections seem like the best way to continue democracy. Unfortunately, over time the main focus of elections has shifted away from democracy and is causing citizens to lose their voice in government. Hudson strongly believes that citizens are slowing losing rights and the government is becoming less democratic due to four major influences in elections: new campaigning strategies, the Electoral College, Media Coverage, and a lack of knowledge among citizens.
Campaigning strategies or what Hudson would refer to as the “Hidden Election” has moved the main focus of elections from being about policy and issues to being about winning. Having the focus of elections be candidate centered has taken away from the real purpose of elections. Hudson states what he believes should be required of a candidate to win an office. He believes that a candidate should have prior political experience in order to win. Ideally that would be nice, and while it is still mostly true today, it takes much more than just experience to win an election in modern times. Hudson says, “the candidates sell themselves,”(Trivialized Elections, American Democracy in Peril,185). What he means is that it doesn’t matter what a candidates pre-requisite looks like but what matters is how well they present themselves.
An enormous amount of effort goes into the election process. After a candidate decides they are running for office, they must immediately begin fund-raising. Nowadays large sums of money are necessary in order to run a successful campaign. In order to run for an office, especially an office like the presidency, a great deal of money is needed to even begin campaigning. Hudson wants it to be known that the election process is “hidden.” There is so much that goes on that most citizens are not aware of. For example, most Americans are not equally represented like we should be in elections, “the hidden elections biases the election process in favor of the very small and wealthy portion of the electorate that contributes to political campaign,”(Trivialized Elections, American Democracy in Peril, 188). Hudson wants it to be known that money is a major factor in elections today. Those who are not able to contribute money to the campaign of a candidate they favor automatically have a disadvantage. If someone is not financially capable of aiding in the funding of a campaign and they cannot support their candidate, they do not have the same equal representation if a candidate they don’t want wins.
Hudson truly believes that there is even more to the Hidden Election that most voters don’t see. After a candidate raises the amount of money they need to continue their campaign, a large team of professional campaign consultants are hired. This team has the important job of figuring out the best strategies for their candidate to win. The main goal of campaigning is to be bigger and better then their opponent. The team of consultants make sure that their candidate is seen in the best way they can be seen. Hudson strongly thinks that these new methods of campaigning, raising money, and “selling” a candidate take away from voter representation, “Nowhere in the marketing approach to campaigning is there a concern for or need to develop a strategy for representing voters,”(Trivialized Elections, American Democracy in Peril, 195). The new techniques applied to campaigning only brain wash voters. They disable voters from being able to see a candidate’s true stance on an issue. Strategies of polling, marketing, and advertising have become the new face of election campaigns and by doing so lessen the representation of voters in the election process.
The Electoral College is the next major concept, which Hudson argues has an impact on the equality and democracy of recent elections. The Electoral College was set up and designed by the Constitution in order to “fairly” elect the president. The Electoral College is was made similar to the way Congress is organized. Each state has equal representation and proportional representation. It is a winner-take-all system so whichever candidate receives the most votes in a certain state wins the state and takes all the electoral votes.
Hudson discusses how the current United States Electoral College system is not democratic in two ways. One is that citizens who live in a more populous state count for less in the big picture. He says that in a smaller state citizens have more of a chance to participate and be represented. Secondly he thinks that the winner-take-all system leaves much room for error. For example, in the 2000 election, George W. Bush won more electoral votes than Al Gore, but Al Gore won the popular vote. Even though Al Gore won the popular vote, George W. Bush would be president because he won the Electoral vote. Hudson believes that the 2000 election is proof that the Electoral College system is not democratic, “This result made Bush the legal winner of the presidential election but not the democratic choice of the electorate,”(Trivialized Elections, American Democracy in Peril, 200). This issue that was brought up in the 2000 election proves that the Electoral College system needs to be reformed because even though there was a consensus among the American people who wanted Al Gore, he didn’t win based on the Electoral system. Another reason that Hudson briefly brings up is that many candidate begin to only center their campaign on swing states. Those states are visited much more frequently by candidates and get more much media attention than states that are clearly going red or blue.
Media is the third point which Hudson deems to be ruining the election process. The amount of media coverage has become enormous and the media is involved in almost every aspect of the campaign except the important part, the policy. Hudson discussed how the media, especially television, has been pressured to condense election information. Because of this, less emphasis has been place on policy, “The pressure on television news organizations to concentrate information into smaller and smaller bites prevent communications much more than slogans,” (Trivialized Elections, American Democracy in Peril, 204). Television has become a crucial aspect to campaign strategy and is influencing voters in the wrong ways. No longer are voters receiving the information that need to be well educated citizens but instead they are becoming less knowledgeable about elections due to media coverage.
Media is influencing what citizens know about elections and by doing this making the general public clueless on the main campaign platforms. Ways of doing this are through television commercial adds. Campaign Advisors are mainly concerned with making their candidate look good and portray their character and personality more than their policy. Hudson uses the example of how a candidate who wants to show they care about the elderly will shoot a commercial in a nursing home. What most viewers don’t realize though is that this commercial says nothing about the candidates actually policy or what they are going to do if elected. This form of campaigning influences voters to think falsely about candidates and never really understand what they are voting for. Hudson wants voters to be educated about what they are voting for so that they can be represented fairly.
Throughout this chapter Hudson has continually viewed the current election process as somewhat corrupt. Hudson is right to say that the system as it stands needs reform. He continually discusses an Athenian way of conducting government as ideal. Although the Athenian way of government worked long ago, with the population the size it is today it would be impossible to expect the United States to be “like” the Athenians. Hudson does make interesting points though about why our elections are becoming useless. In order for democracy to stay alive in the United States, elections have to express policy and issues more and stop dwelling on the idea of winning.
-Ellie
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