Here are the ten(ish) links I learned from this week:
- Presidential Election Update
- These two maps are incredibly revealing about who’s voting for Trump and why (The Washington Post)
- Panama Papers? What are those?
- The Panama Papers leak, explained with an adorable comic about piggy banks (Vox)
- The 8 most important things to read to understand the Panama Papers document leak (Vox)
- The Panama Papers are super awkward for Beijing (The Washington Post)
- The Panama Papers show something that Bernie Sanders gets right about the economy (Vox)
- One Person, One Vote, Eight Justices (The Atlantic)
- Why are so many Democrats and Republicans Pretending to Be Independents (The Washington Post)
- The Researchers Who Sank a Bogus Canvassing Study Have Replicated Some of its Findings (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
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“Wisconsin Primary” by tadfad (CC BY-NC 2.0)
“Bernie Sanders lands big win in Wisconsin” – this shows the diversity of the US primary system (including regional and demographic differences). Wisconsin has a different demographic ( a bit more homogenous population) than New York (and New York city) – this is a factor on who will vote for Clinton or Sanders.
Similar to the Republican primary, this win keeps Sanders in the race (as various victories keeps Cruz close to Trump and Kasich in the race). Plus both parties conventions will be brokered (similar to the “backroom” dealings before 1972 – as there were fighting on the floor of the 1968 DEM convention in Chicago).
Sanders ideas are gaining momentum (old voters and ideas vs. youth voters). the youth turnout (which usually is low) may be a factor.
Political parties are viewed differently in the current times. In a VOX video, it is revealed that Trump is doing well as a Republican even though many interviewed conservatives do not view him as conservative. The reasoning provided is that they care more about Nationalism rather than the actual stances of being conservative. They care about who is leading the country. This information relates to the article, “Why are so many Democrats and Republicans pretending to be independents?” This article by John Slides claims that people are not saying that they have party affiliation because political parties are seen in a negative light, and in order to provide a good impression, people think that it is best to stay away from claiming affiliation. The view and the concept of political parties has changed over time. Leaders like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders appeal not towards people who necessarily stand by the views of the party that they are in, perhaps because they themselves have a more independent view. Like interviewees in the video said, Donald Trump does not stand for what the conservative view states. Because of this, his approach targets people with views of his own. Because political party affiliation is dropping, it is not as imperative to appeal to the specific standards of the party, as long as the supporting nationalists are on board with the notions of the candidate.
These two maps are incredibly revealing about who’s voting for Trump and why
As president Trump’s campaign slogan states, “let’s make America great again”, it’s seem that the people that want that to happen are the “true” Americans. The un-hyphenated Americans that claim no ties to any European or other country of origin. The ones that put America as the country of origin of them, their parents and grandparents. It seems only fair, since it’s “their” country they can choice what state the country is at, and who can live it. Scientifically proven there is a pattern of un-hyphenated Americans being listed in the top percents of Trump voters. Similarly, they are the same persons who fall under the category of the most uneducated voters from the poorest areas of America. They seems to be lead by the idea that America is only great when the “non-Americans” leave. However, many forget that their grandparents were once immigrants, and while they do not believe it, their country of origin is not America. It’s a foreign country, therefore making them just as much of an immigrant as someone who was born here and has Middle Eastern parents. Trump seems to support the dislike of the “immigrants” and the support of the KKK is a clear point that supports that theory. When receiving the support of the KKK, he refuses to speak on the subject or denounce support from the organization. Therefore, silently supporting the issue.
“One Person One Vote”
For years, since 1964, the states have relied on total population as a judgment factor when drawing legislative district lines. Recently, two Texas voters challenged this idea, demanding that non-voters dilute the local populations, and calling for lines to be redrawn using only the eligible voter population. However, this argument faced opposition in the argument that redrawing the lines in this way would result in favor of a white, elderly, conservative electorate. The supreme court also rejected the argument of the two Texas voters, claiming that they had gone too far, and they would be disrupting a well-oiled machine. The supreme court added that this did not mean it wouldn’t happen, just that they wouldn’t make it a requirement, that if an individual state wanted to do so, they would address it on a case by case basis.
Great summary of the article and issue at hand, Josh! Do you agree or disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision and reasoning?
“Why are so many Democrats and Republicans pretending to be independents?” This article has a sociological element in that it hints that people want to fit in. People are leaving parties (another way that party power is declining) with the feeling that they are stalling legislation (“gridlock”), but it is interesting that while these people are dis satisfied with the Congress, they still like their individual legislator (works with the incumbent advantage).
The authors state that people still have the strong partisan belief and disagreements, so it is possible that stating that a person is an independent is a social thing (to fit in and not to argue in social situations). As stated in class that the family is a large influence politically on a person’s views and party identification, this article may hint that this view is still legitimate.
Yes, sociological, but I believe it’s also/primarily psychological. Our need to belong, for example, is a psychological need/motivation. Our need to resolve cognitive dissonance that may result from our social environment, for example, is also a psychological need.
“These two maps are incredibly revealing who’s voting for Trump and why”
The area where whites define their ancestry to be “American” are the same areas that seem to be supporting Trump and where his campaign is doing the best. In this study many different sets of data and statistics were looked at from censuses to previous election out comes. After looking at this data it shows that Trump counties are ones of economic dysfunctions. Trump does well where the unhyphenated americans live, some of those locations include the deep south, southeast Ohio, eastern Kentucky and south west Virginia. People who are struggling and “want to make America great again” are the ones voting for Trump these are the people so far removed from their ancestors that they consider themselves “American” and they want their lives to be improved.
“The Panama Papers leak, explained with an adorable comic about piggy banks”
This article looks at the recent leak of 2.6 terabytes of documents that revealed a worldwide web of corruption, as well as tax avoidance. The article shows a comic that used a piggy bank to simplify the subject.
The comic describes how some people had a piggy bank at their house, but they did not like the fact that their mom was checking in on the piggy bank to see how much they were putting in the piggy bank and how much they were taking out of it. So these people decided to get an extra piggy bank that their mom didn’t know about at someone else’s house whose mom didn’t check the status of their piggy banks. Eventually, the person’s mom checks on the piggy bank of the person, who everyone else was keeping their piggy banks house at, and got mad when she found all of the people’s piggy banks and told all of their parents about the piggy banks.
The article then tells how some of the people got their money that was out in the extra piggy banks and that some of the people’s money was earned legitimately and how other people’s money was earned less so. Even though some people didn’t do anything wrong in earning their money everyone was still in trouble, because keeping secret piggy banks is not allowed. The article finishes by saying that now journalist are looking through the records to find out exactly where the money that was in the piggy banks came from.
Ian, good summary! Your statement “because keeping secret piggy banks is not allowed” is not entirely correct, however. In most cases, having these so-called “secret piggy banks” is completely legal. Legal tax havens exist, but that doesn’t mean that they are always completely moral or good for society.
These two maps are incredibly revealing about who’s voting for Trump and why (The Washington Post)
There is a strong correlation between unhyphenated Americans and their support for Donald Trump. Unhyphenated Americans are those that they ancestry or ethnic origin is “American”. These people are mostly located in the Appalachia and rural areas of the south and are less likely the average citizen to have graduated college.
The data collected shows that for every increase in a county’s unhyphenated Americans, there is an increase in support of Trump. It also showed that increases in median income and education levels led to less support for Trump.
In general it seems that a lot of Trump’s support comes from whites who are generations separated from their original ancestors. They feel that Trump is the best candidate for returning America to the successful country that generations before theirs once experienced.
One thing I found very interesting was that counties that had more African Americans and immigrants. With Trump’s policies on immigration, theres no way that his increased support is coming from them. However, it shows that more of these unhyphenated Americans come out of the shadows to support a candidate in favor of decreasing immigration. While it is a little sickening, I think this trend in support is intriguing.
The counties with more African Americans and immigrants had more support for Trump–forgot to finish the sentence in the third paragraph
I found the Washington Post article on why Americans are identifying as independents very interesting. I think it is unfortunate that in our society sharing political views outrightly has become a negative thing. In my personal opinion, having conversations and debates with others about political views is where new thoughts and ideas come from. However, many people believe they are better off not specifically identifying with one particular party and checking the “independent” box instead. The authors of the book “Independent Studies” performed many experiments as a way to explain why so many United States citizens are choosing to identify as independent. What they found was that a belief, one that has been perpetuated recently, that partisanship leads to negativity can be identified as the main factor. In order to avoid this stigma, people claim to be independent. I think that identifying as independent is an interesting concept. Studies have shown that if someone votes with a party in one election they are much more likely to vote for the same party in the next. Therefore, if someone identifies as independent but votes for the Democratic party in all elections they are, for all intents and purposes, a Democrat. Political affiliation is not something that people should be afraid to express. Especially in a country that fought for independence on the basis of gaining the right to express their opinions on varying issues.
Emily, I also found the article very interesting. I also think it’s important that Americans still have conversations and debates about politics, but I do not think it should occur on Facebook or on many social spaces where things can be misconstrued and people can be aggressive. How do we create safe spaces where people can talk about politics and disagree with civility?