[NEW] Essay plans for elections (3C)

This is long overdue, my apologies. This site boasts on average 6,00 views a day and approximately 13,000 per month and everyone has been asking me to upload more essay plans and whatnot, so here they are.

I did not create these essay plans myself, one of my tutees did. There are a range of new examples from this year and last year as my previous essays are too out-dated apparently and I have people complaining about an example from 2014 which I still think is very relevant. Some of these plans are fully completed, others have information missing.

More essay plans and notes to come.

To what extent is the system of nominating Presidential candidates in need of reform? (45)

PARTY DIVISIONS. Primaries are lengthy and have a tendency to create party divisions because they become really intense and as seen this year, toxic (NY Times). Personal attacks are increasingly likely; “You are the single biggest liar. You probably are worse than Jeb Bush,” (Trump to Ted Cruz) “Donald Trump’s consistently disgraceful” (Cruz to Trump) Trump completely divides the GOP.	Divisions can be easily repaired because of how long the actual process is, almost all fights during elections and divisions are healed by the end as seen through endorsements. Bernie fully endorsed Hillary Clinton Cruz, although initially refusing, endorsed Trump.
SUPER TUESDAY. Primaries are meant to be a lengthy process with consistency in debate, it should not be easy to predict a winner so early on as is enabled through the Super Tuesday which gives away over 50% of delegates in one day. This disenfranchises other states. 2016 has 4 super Tuesdays. Marco Rubio forced to drop out before Florida - his home state - even votes.	2016 is arguably an exception and an anomaly due to how radical the candidates are. Front loading was barely a problem in 2012. The last state can still have a large impact on the primaries and frontloading does not always allow an easy prediction of who the winner will be. 11 in 2012, 19 2016.
LOW TURNOUT. The turnout is generally low showing that the system is not appealing to the electorate and questions the mandate and democratic legitimacy of candidates nominated. Participation is needed for democracy to flourish. 2016 - 28% 2012 - 17% 2008 - 30%	Low turnouts show correlation rather than causation. Does not suggest why they are voting and cannot prove that the system is to blame. Could be disillusioned with Congress or Washington politics. Voters still use the primaries as a way of judging the candidates even if they aren’t voting in the primary.
LACK OF PEER REVIEW. Primaries test candidate campaigning skills rather than their governing skills. Voters lack peer review as they may be ill informed or may just vote out of emotion. Prior 1970s reform party bosses in smoke filled rooms made educated decisions.	In a media dominated 21st century, campaigning skills are just as important as governing skills. Weeds out weak candidates like Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina.
NEW HAMPSHIRE MYTH. It has been argued that the candidates that win the first primary and caucus in New Hampshire and Iowa will in the primaries. Eliminate the usefulness of state primaries.	This hasn’t occurred for the last three presidents (Clinton, Obama and Bush). Sanders won New Hampshire and lost overall.

Who votes for who and why?

• Republicans: Middle and upper class wealthy people because republicans tend to be fiscally conservative and cut back on taxation, which is something that appeals to the rich. Paul Ryan – Tax cuts grow the economy and create more jobs.
• Gun owners because republicans support the 2nd amendment. John McCain – prosecute criminals not citizens for gun ownership.
• Religious people because the Republicans tend to hold more conservative beliefs such as anti-gay marriage, anti-marijuana, pro family values and against gun control.
• Nativists who oppose immigration as seen through Donald Trump who even won the Republican bid for presidency.

Democrats

• African Americans  As the democrats are the party of the minority
• Immigrants and Hispanics
• Gay people
• Women – Lilyledbetter act, fair pay act and abortion.

Do propositions, referendums and recall elections enhance or weaken democracy.
Increase participation. Propositions and referendums could provide a specific issue that is attractive to a specific group of voters, which would perhaps encourage them to go and vote for the proposition as well as for a presidential election/mid term election. Additionally, propositions offer another form of political participation, something that is necessary for democracy to flourish. For example, the issue of marijuana legalisation has got a lot of young voters voting – this year in total (2016) there have been too many propositions for the legislation of marijuana (California 12m voted, Nevada). Political participation in the US is especially important because the turnouts at election time have been low in recent years.	However, despite them increasing participation, it is not always successful, some issues are more important than others to voters and therefore some issues will obviously gain much more attention by the electorate while others will be completely neglected. So, propositions rarely ever bump up the turnout. Less than 50% - Washington State Init. 1433
Knowledge and education. Gives a lot of people the opportunity to become a lot more engaged in politics as many pressure groups and parties will be campaigning, many views will be around propelled through the news. In a democracy it is important for a population to be educated on the issues. The electorate must be informed and educated on candidates and the general political climate of their country so that they may be able to make informed decisions on elections. Propositions and initiatives help to educate the public on such matters, informing them of what the current political agenda is. During the run up to the California propositions in 2016 such as Prop 66 many newspaper were pu3blishing guides entitled with something along the lines of “What is Proposition 66: Voter Guide” to educate the population about the proposition	Wedge politics. Many people already have engraved beliefs such as through religious principles like on abortion, the death penalty or gay marriage. The media may have a weak impact. Many issues like the death penalty, gay marriage or abortion are subject to wedge politics which splits apart a country which could lead to general disorder within a country through protests or even riots.
Forces issues to the debate. Propositions force certain political issues to be put on the agenda for political debate. Many issues may be neglected by politicians and they may not be sympathetic to such issues and therefore may not be acting on them, propositions allow for ignored issues or issues not being well tackled to be forced straight into the political debate and allow for people to decide on them for themselves. This is a form of direct democracy, some issues may be too sensitive or too controversial to be decided on by just politicians and so the people get a say in them as well.	However, this arguably does not enhance democracy simply because many of the issues which are put on the ballot are issues pushed forward by a small minority of wealthy pressure groups, hinting at an elitist society. So this means that only a narrow number of political issues are actually put on the ballot and many others are excluded because smaller groups are unable to meet the requirements to put their issue on the ballot. For example:  With just weeks to gather more than 61,000 signatures, the campaign to authorize a casino in southern Maine reportedly offered circulators up to $10 per signature. 2016
Accountability. Through initiatives and propositions, the people are able to hold their elected officials to account. They can bring up an issue that the representative promised to commit to during their election, making them campaign for it, or generally implement it/work towards it. Recall of an election allows them to hold a politician to account where they essentially hold a re-election which they could use to disapprove or approve of their candidate by voting out or in the candidate. The Colorado recall election of 2013 was a successful effort to recall two Democratic members of the Colorado Senate following their support of new gun control legislation. Initially four politicians were targeted, John Morse and State Senator Angela Giron. Replaced by two Republicans.

Why are US presidential election campaigns so long?

1. The invisible primary lasts a minimum of a year which allows the candidates to collect money, donors and supporters. Preparations are made so early in fact that some candidates have announced that they are running 2 years before the election even takes place. Jeb Bush announced his that he would be running for president in 2014 and his invisible primary had technically begun since then.
2. Frontloading means that the invisible primary must start even earlier to allow for a greater deal for money to be raised as if the primaries are shortened by heavy frontloading, there is less time to raise money unless the invisible primary is prolonged. Hence Jeb Bush starting two years prior while this year there was a huge level of frontloading in the form of 4 super tuesdays and a super saturday.
3. The electoral college could lead to battles in the supreme court or in politics in general as was seen in 2000 when Al Gore took it to the Supreme Court due to him winning the popular vote but not the electoral college. This happened again this year but there was little to no backlash over it and no supreme court cases.
4. There are useless events such as the National Convention where a winner emerges, a vice president is selected and a party starts. This happens despite the winner having already been announced and the Vice President is now rarely actually even selected during the National Convention. It usually occurs long before the national convention begins.

Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the Electoral College

1. It suppresses the popular will, allowing a candidate to win despite losing the popular vote. It is therefore democratic as the winner is not winning by a majority of the vote as was seen in 2016 when Donald Trump won despite having around 2 million less votes than Hillary Clinton.
2. It requires candidates to campaign for all regions in America and to focus on key group of voters meaning that they are able to assess  their distinct issues. Such as how Hillary has been able to focus heavily on minority rights, while Donald Trump has focused heavily on immigration.
3. Some states are heavily democrat and heavily republican meaning that some candidates would pay less attention to some specific states such as how Democrats would hardly try to get Texas to vote for them and the Republicans would rarely attempt to win in California.
4. Candidates from minor parties have almost no ability to win unless they have very high levels of support in specific states when in truth they only have a small amount of support in every state.
5. Rogue electors