The Electoral College Argument (ANSWERED)

QUESTION

Required Resources

Read/review the following resources for this activity:

• Textbook: Chapters 5, 6 and 10
• Lesson: Read this Week’s Lesson which is located in the Modules tab
• Initial Post: minimum of 2 scholarly sources (must include your textbook for one of the sources). Follow-Up Post: minimum of 1 scholarly source for your Follow-Up Post.

Initial Post Instructions

For the initial post, respond to one of the following options, and label the beginning of your post indicating either Option 1 or Option 2:

• Option 1: List the ways in which contemporary presidential campaigns have used social media as a campaign tool. Do you consider social media as a successful tool? Explain your answer. Do you see social media as an unsuccessful tool? Explain your answer and provide examples.
• Option 2: There are numerous discussions involving the Electoral College. There are some people that want to abolish the electoral college while others want to keep it. What do you think? Keep the electoral college or abolish it? Explain the reasons for your choice.

Be sure to make connections between your ideas and conclusions and the research, concepts, terms, and theory we are discussing this week.

ANSWER

Option 1: Politics and Social Media

List how contemporary presidential campaigns have used social media as a campaign tool.

• It is used to market or advertise candidates, i.e., digital marketing
• Engage with voters and other political actors in their campaign
• Campaign communication, including the expression of candidate’s opinions
• Candidates can use it to address controversies, scandals, etc.

Do you consider social media a successful tool?

I consider social media a successful campaign tool. Part of Obama’s success can be attributed to his social media marketing strategies (Miller, 2013). Barack Obama opted for social media as a more effective method of relaying his campaign, gaining fame as the “first social media president” (Miller, 2013). He used social media to communicate his manifesto to the voting public, interact with followers, and gain response and interest from the public. According to Miller (2013), this social media campaign was partly responsible for Obama’s successful campaign. Other presidential candidates have also used social media to defuse attacks from political opponents. For example, Trump took to social media to clear the air about a released audio clip interpreted offensively by a particular demographic. Trump’s Twitter statement helped diffuse the situation and protect his public image. These examples demonstrate the effectiveness of social media as a campaign tool.

Do you see social media as an unsuccessful tool? Explain your answer and provide examples

As much as social media is helpful, it can also be destructive. Nothing put on the internet is ever forgotten (Smith, 2011). Therefore, anything a politician says or does may be misinterpreted, invoke negative reactions, and ruin their campaign efforts (Smith, 2011). This issue is prominent when candidates handle their social media platforms without the staff’s help, meaning candidates need expert help to run successful social media campaigns (Smith, 2011). Social media success as a campaign tool depends on its content and how it is used.

Option 2: The Electoral College Argument

I think the Electoral College should be abolished because it increases the risk of corrupt dealings in the House of Representatives. West (2020) argues that the US is currently characterized by high-income inequality, making it easy for certain demographics to influence the elections. A personal opinion is that the electoral process is unfair and does not truly represent people’s will as long as elections are left in the hands of a selected few. No one person’s vote should be more or less important than another. From my perspective, elections will be truly representative when each citizen’s vote counts. This approach will prevent well-resourced individuals and organizations from corrupting the House of Representatives or influencing elections.

The Electoral College should also be abolished because representation disparities characterize it. The constitution outlines that each state has two Electoral College votes regardless of size. The framers of the constitution believed that giving two votes to each state would prevent large states from dominating small states in presidential elections. However, West (2011) argues that this format overrepresents small states at the expense of large states, justifying its abolishment.

Another reason for abolishing the Electoral College is that most Americans favor its abolishment. Saad (2013) reveals that approximately 67% of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College. Democracy requires the government to prioritize the wants of the majority. To this end, the government should do away with the Electoral College because most Americans support it. As a democratic country, the United States should do what it considers to be truly fair. The debate on abolishing the Electoral College should end with honoring our democratic values, whether independent choices of individual citizens or diversity of values.

References

Miller, W. J. (2013). We can’t all Be Obama: The use of new media in modern political campaigns. Journal of Political Marketing, 12(4), 326-347.

Saad, L. (2013). Americans call for term limits, end to electoral college. Gallup. com.

Smith, K. N. (2011). Social media and political campaigns. https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2442&context=utk_chanhonoproj

West, D. M. (2020). It’s time to abolish the Electoral College. Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Big-Ideas_West_Electoral-College.pdf

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