An attempt at appearing to not cause harm for the sake of public opinion causing harm.

    It’s nearly December, which means that there are 31 days left before the Americans fall head first into a self incude economic depression. Nothing could seem worse, people and business would all suffer under such conditions, and yet there are some who are reluctant to make the necessary changes.

   Today part of a budget was put forward, which depicted the necessary revenue increases that would be required as part of a comprehensive plan. The included a simplification of the tax code by eliminating loopholes and deduction to increase overall revenue without dramatic increases in the tax rates themselves. However, for any budget to be effective there need to be not only revenue increases but cuts in heavy and bloated government benefits – there needs to be entitlement reform.

   Herein lies the issue facing Washington today; no one wants to be responsible for cuts to programs that directly benefit the lives of voters, however necessary they may be. Though such actions have been in the platforms of Republicans who ran in the previous election, they happened to also lose the presidential election. Both camps know that this would be perfect ammunition to attack their opponents in this never ending political cycle, positioning the other as in opposition to the middle class, and therefore unable to compromise. Failure to do so will ultimately result in greater turmoil, so hopefully both sides will make a deal and stop causing harm in an attempt at appearing to not cause harm.

    As was identified quickly by most pundits on all news programs following the presidential election results, Republican candidates had an issue with minorities and those who traditionally held little sway in election results. Among these people are women, who were not only directly targeted during the election, but who’s issues played an important role in the national dialogue. Specifically, the issues of birth control and abortion were highly controversial topics.

    However, what many republicans didn’t anticipate was a general shift in the public opinion regarding many of these issues towards a much more social view, as well as a few extremely poor missteps by fellow GOP candidates in the public forum. Nevertheless, comments about “legitimate rape” and medical comments that turned out to be extremely scientifically inaccurate .

    While these incidents created PR fiascoes, ultimately resulting in many of the candidates losing their races, their issue because whether candidates should be speaking with the intention  of winning certain segments of the electorate or expressing their true intentions and beliefs. Candidates found that in many cases it was more beneficial to avoid talking about women’s issues or give substance-less answers than face the negative effects of their actual opinions and the resulting bad publicity.

    I find engaging in such behaviour, misrepresenting your actual values to better fit the perceptions and opinions of certain demographics is an unethical result of politics. The must present the greatest value to the greatest number of people, and in doing so position their platform to meet the expectations of the public even if they sometimes don’t align.

Positioning, the p in politics.

“… Hispanic voters could push Colorado and Nevada back toward the tipping point, … States like Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Iowa are overwhelmingly white – but also highly educated, with fairly progressive views on social policy.” 

    Nate Silver is a statistician and psephologist, and in the months leading up to the US election he hosted a blog in partnership with the New York Times. Five Thirty Eight took a closer look at the hundreds of national, statewide and topic polls that were conducted in the months leading up to the election, applying a mathematical analysis to the mind numbing numbers.

   However, the most interesting aspect of the whole polling process was the historical context of certain results; changing demographics in the United states had allowed minorities for the first time to play a greater role than Caucasian Americans. To be more specific, president Obama was able to win near all of the swing states, with a greater majority of the electoral college votes, without also obtaining a landslide popular vote.

    The Obama coalition, African-Americans, Hispanics, Women and the youth voted in large numbers for the President, and it became a point of discussion in the days which have followed the election about how Republicans can better appeal to these demographics and win back American.

    A more popular segment than white males and a decisive element in many sing states, it has now become a matter of who can better target and position to appeal to these voters. Maybe the next GOP nominee should be Marco Rubio.

Let the best least awful candidate win the race.

    With 42 days left until the American election, it seems clear that the defining issues for average Americans are going to be the economy, national security, social issues and whether the Democrats or Republicans are truly the reincarnation of Satin himself and responsible for destroying the American dream. Although one would assume that with so little time left for each candidate to sway crucial votes in swing states, platform and policy issues would consume most of the political debate, the candidates campaigns would clearly disagree. Rhetoric based in exaggeration and misinformation, and negative campaign ads that consistently outspend their positive counterpart by nearly 80%, the race has become a choice between the better of two evils.

    However, this may be due to the political environment and population more than the candidates themselves. What has quickly become the most polarized US election means that the target for campaigns and their marketing strategies is no longer to sway independents. Most voters have already decided who they are going to vote for, the true obstacle now lies in increasing the voter turnout for those whom you have already swayed.

    Hope is no longer the answer to discontent, fear has replace it wholeheartedly. Whether that is good for the American people or not has yet to be seen, but if the two campaigns are right then we are surly headed for totally annihilation.