Elections Test.

I believe that a true politician should first and foremost adhere to public concerns, gain campaign funding through both federal funds and corporations and obtain good social skills. These leaders strive to play an active role in influencing policies that they believe are important to our ever changing society. Of course those are the qualities an ideal politician should retain, however, at the same time becoming a politician is not the easiest journey-there are many highs and lows along the way. It may not always be a Democratic process, but in the end the candidates do what they feel is best, to win the votes of the people.

Reflecting off of the two movies we watched in class, it gave us the inside view on how elections truly run. First off, a strong politician needs to affiliate themselves with a political party that best parallel their beliefs to better our society-parties such as the Democratic, Republican or Independent. Being a candidate, he/she must stand firmly on controversial issues, meaning that they must stay true to their own party's beliefs and not sway in a different direction. After the candidate makes themselves known to Americans, with their strong voices and opinions, certain corporations start showing their support. With that, the businesses will donate campaign money to the candidates because they feel that this certain individual will represent them best. For more votes, candidates will reach out to Political Action Committees, these people seem to be of close relation to the candidate or people who truly believe in what the candidate stands for. These committees will take the time to pass out flyers, call individuals, and put up signs to further the support for he/she that is running. However, it is crucial that these candidates can afford all this campaigning, this is when the hard and soft money come into place. All politicians can receive "hard money", which is money given from the Federal Election Commission. This is regulated by the government-meaning each candidate receives all equal money to spend on their campaign. Despite the fact these candidates receive money to run their campaign, sometimes it is just not enough to reach the minds of individuals all over the country-there's always more that they can do. Therefore, they need more money/donations-soft money. This money comes from contributions made to the party unregulated. These people are allowed to give as much money as they wish, without any government regulation- a loop hole in the law. I guess money is money and these parties will do whatever they need to in order to gain votes.

As the voting gets closer, so does the media. In ways, the media can be a good and bad thing. As he/she becomes a more popular candidate, reporters and journalists always want to know more. They want to get the inside scoop on everything that goes on during the campaigning. Some reporters may be out to ruin the politician while others are in it to expand the support system-all this is media bias. Obviously, if a reporter is a Democrat and the politician they are taking photos of is a Republican they want to take shots that make the candidate seem unfit for the position. Yet others, who are for the politician will even pass out pre-made signs to individuals so they can shoot a what seems like active political press conference with signs, masks, posters etc. The media also does a great deal of promoting candidates who have a dynasty in politics. For example, Carnihan had the advantage of having his mother and other family members already in Congress. The media portrays Carnihan as more experienced than Smith-just because of his family. Through the media and debates, the candidate can reach out to the people and attract their votes. This will result in an increase in voter turnout and ideally help the candidate win the election.

Voter turnout should be more emphasized in today's politics because without someones vote, we cannot get a true grasp of public opinion. When people feel strongly about an issue and vote on it, most likely the issue will be dealt with. There has not been a very large percentage of voter turnout recently, partly because the general population does not feel heard by the Representatives of Congress. Somehow our citizens need to be motivated to register and vote, because larger voter turnouts create a more accurate result in whom our leader should be.