About Politics

Jim DeSantis asked:


In recent years we have been fed the idea that “political correctness” is finally a way of life in America. Television, Hollywood, Internet and print media are all presenting this idea as fact. Ethnic entertainment stars and politicians are trotted out as examples of just how politically correct America has become. But, is the picture a true one? Will it apply this election year?

It was not so many years ago that there was a deeply seated notion that certain ethnic groups were incapable of the intelligence required to handle a political office. And, women were seen as emotionally incapable of making political decisions based on logic rather than emotion. It took government action and the U.S. Supreme Court to force America, kicking and screaming, to accept that “all men are created equal,” women as well. Yet, groups such as the Ku Klux Klan or K.K.K., while mostly underground these days, exist along with white supremesists.

If you believe historians, we in the North have always been more liberal toward minorities and women. We are now told that the South, while deeply rooted in the traditions of the past, is starting to admit that black people are worthy of being called human beings. And, that blacks have intelligent ideas and solutions for improving the areas in which they live. We are asked to believe, in general, the South now recognize the equality of all people as human beings, rather than being blinded by skin color or gender. I would argue that the opposite is really the truth.

Society, North or South, still has much work to do in regards to eradicating racism and gender and religious bias. On the surface it appears there have been major strides in the political arena. This year even sees a black presidential candidate and a white female presidential candidate. While the polls show each has a strong chance of becoming President, the election is many months away. The issues of race and gender will play key roles in political campaigns behind the scenes. Campaign workers will capitalize on racial and gender bias when contacting voters. They will do this in positive and negative ways depending upon the voting group being contacted.

For the most part, it’s true that black people and women are no longer considered to be property. Blacks are no longer forced to walk behind white people in a neighborhood, no longer forced to ride in the back of a bus, nor drink from a separate fountain or use separate lavatory facilities. However, black people are treated largely as equal to white people because it’s the law of the land. Americans were forced, by law, to give women and blacks the right to vote, for example. They could no longer be denied the rights enoyed by most Americans for decades. The right to vote has given minorities and women tremendous power.

Many minorities and women today are becoming the heads of major corporations; many are now earning salaries equal to, if not higher, than their white counterparts, some rising to the top of their profession at an equally fast rate. This is a major step in the right direction to reduce racism and gender bias but, again, under the force of law. In addition, there are minorities and women in offices of political power across the country thanks, largely, to the right-to-vote laws.

Minorities and women are slowly starting to take positions as politicians at the federal, state, and local levels. This is a major step forward, and a sure sign that, with time, racial and gender bias will be beaten.

Some advancement is due to open minds, people who truly look past color, religion, and gender. You will find them in pockets of liberalism around the nation. Where a minority or a woman is elected, there you will find open minds, people who vote on where the candidates stand on issues. The exception, if there is one, is where the candidate represents a district that is largely populated by voters of a background similar to the candidate.

In the South, there is still the Ku Klux Klan operating. Although they are significantly weaker than was the case 100, 50, or even 20 years ago, they continue to work behind the scenes to deny blacks their rightful place in America. Such groups and organizations impede progress, clinging to their hate and ignorance. But, despite their attempts blacks are making a name for themselves, and proving they are as capable of political talent as anyone else in the country. While this progress is largely because of the force of voting rights laws, we should be encouraged. With the advancements that have been forced in the last few decades, it’s possible we may see a President who is a minority or female in this generation.

Will it be in Election 2008? I do not believe so.

My reasoning for this pessimism is simple: What we see publicly portrayed in Media, this idea that America is now politically correct, is not reality. Test this for yourself by raising this subject with someone. I doubt they will admit they are racially or gender biased. Most likely they will say positive things to your face but will vote just the opposite. While this is the reality in America, it is our right to vote our choices regardless of how misguided such thinking is.

Only time will tell if we truly are an open-minded society, judging a person by their words and actions and not by their religion, race, or gender. After all, there are intelligent and ignorant people of every religion, race, and gender, right? There are intelligent and ignorant men and women, Christians and Jews and agnostics and atheists, right? None of the labels mean a thing in a truly democratic society. Above all countries, they shouldn’t matter in America.

Jim DeSantis

Elizabeth

Paul Davis asked:


Political consulting is the business which has grown up around advising and assisting political campaigns, primarily in the United States. As democracy has spread around the world, American political consultants have often developed an international base of clients. Though its most important role is probably in the production of mass media (largely television), political consultants advise campaigns on virtually all of their activities, from research to field strategy.

The practice of consulting has several early precedents. President William McKinley’s closest political advisor Mark Hanna is sometimes described as the first political consultant. In California in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, Whitaker and Baxter established and grew the first true consulting firm, Campaigns, Inc. However, political consulting

blossomed with the increasing use of television advertising for campaign communications in the 1960s. It was in that period that Joe Napolitan claims to have become the first person to describe himself as a political consultant (Perlmutter, ed. Manship Guide to Political Communication, pg19).

In the subsequent years, political consulting has grown in importance and influence and extended its reach to campaigns at all levels of government in the United States, and beyond. Many consultants work not only for campaigns, but also for other political organizations, including parties and political action committees, sometimes through independent expenditures; some also do public relations and research work for corporations and governments. In fact, today corporations seeking approval from municipal boards have turned to land use political consultants to help earn need entitlements for their project.

Critics also blame political consulting, at least in part, for a variety of ills of the modern election process. In part because broadcast media consultants are often paid on commission, they are blamed specifically for the rising cost of political campaigns and the increasing reliance on paid media. A successful candidate running a low-budget campaign would be a serious economic threat to the political consulting field; such candidates, however, are rare.

Left-leaning activists within the Democratic Party, in particular, charge that political consultants are a major obstacle to participatory democracy, political reform, and electoral success for the Democrats. In a much-publicized e-mail on December 9, 2004, the online activist group MoveOn.org wrote, “For years, the Party has been led by elite Washington insiders who are closer to corporate lobbyists than they are to the Democratic base. But we can’t afford four more years of leadership by a consulting class of professional election losers.”

Lastly, there is growing professional opposition to what is called a cookie cutter campaign, where the themes and strategies of one campaign are transferred to another campaign, despite what may be major differences in political context. Brian Wright, president of Democrasource, LLC (an Ohio based national political consulting firm

specializing in enhanced campaign data strategies and micro-targeting), believes that “it’s just a matter of time, campaign communications techniques are evolving so quickly — anyone sitting on the sidelines or clinging to the last presidential campaign’s strategies is done. The book’s been rewritten.”

Marion

TBDDF asked:


Are you people commenting on politics in this Ask-Answer forum actually college educated in politics and political theory or are you just throwing out your beliefs to see if you get allies? After all, you wouldn’t consult with a roofer if you need electrical work on your home. So now who’s clinging on to what’s comfortable? I’ve got 2 degrees in the subject matter, what qualifies you to be authorities?

Crystal

♫amazing♫ asked:


My dream is to be the president someday. I know that is a little far fetched, but it is my dream.
How does someone start their career in politics?
What do I major in, in college?
I’m only 17 but I would like to get some answers now because I am very curious about what I would have to do.
Thanks!
Serious answers, please.

Dean

loveashley21 asked:


How can i start a career in politics

Aaron

Yahoo Sucks asked:


Immigration has obviously become absorbed into the polarized political battle between the Left and Right.

Politics aside…

-What are the benefits of immigration?

-What problems does immigration pose for the United States?

-What kinds of lives do illegal immigrants live in this country?

Jessie

James William Smith asked:


Politicians give speeches to rally support from voters. Some have a gift for oratory. Many politicians do not. In 2008, it’s election season in America and the speeches come at us from every side of the political spectrum. We can see excerpts from candidates’ speeches on television commercials, in debates and, on the nightly news.

The fact is that there are many different types of political speeches. There is the standard candidate “stump” speech, a speech used in every venue that a candidate visits in the course of his campaign day. There is the convention speech where a candidate will give a major address at a party’s political convention. There is the inaugural address that a newly elected President gives to begin his/her term in office. There is the State of the Union address that a President gives to Congress each year. There are speeches after surprise events like 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. There are speeches after world events and natural disasters. Indeed there have been hundreds of thousands of political speeches given by countless politicians over the last hundred years in America.

The reality is that of all these political speeches there are very few that we can remember. There are still fewer that made a difference and had any meaningful impact. That is why given our perspective of historical hindsight that we must acknowledge a truly great political speech, a speech that was given with remarkable courage at the time, a speech with historical significance delivered with passion, moral conscience, and delivered with perfect cadence and a speech that would mark a significant turning point in American society. The ” I Have a Dream” speech of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is the speech which fills all this criteria and more.

Dr. Martin Luther King gave the famous speech on August 28, 1963. The speech was delivered to over two hundred thousand civil rights supporters during the March on Washington on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It would be a defining moment for the civil rights movement, a movement which represented an American cultural revolution with ammunition that consisted only of extraordinary words.

King’s address was given to advocate racial harmony. It referenced the Bible, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and the Declaration of Independence. It was a call to history, moral conscience, and justice. In Dr. King’s words in 1963, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will they be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.”

Later in the speech his analogy of a “promissory note” was perfect for our capitalist society. King said, “In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’”

Indeed, his speech now seems like a long time ago, but only less than five decades have passed into history. The transformation of American society in that short span of time has been remarkable. The America of 1963 was certainly a much different place than it is now. Racial discrimination and segregation were the order of the day. Voting rights for black Americans was compromised at every turn. In fact, Martin Luther King was arrested about twenty times and assaulted at least four times prior to 1963.

Society would begin to change after that speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. One year later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would outlaw segregation in United States schools and public places. It would prohibit discrimination in schools, hiring ,and housing. In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act which effectively eliminated various states’ practices of disenfranchising black voters.

Dr. King would be named Time Man of the Year in 1963. He would be awarded five honorary degrees. In 1964, at the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., would become the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

There certainly have been great political speeches in America in the last one hundred years. Franklin Roosevelt delivered two with his First Inaugural Address and his Pearl Harbor Address. John Kennedy’s Inaugural Address and Ronald Reagan’s Shuttle Disaster speech were a couple of more great speeches. I am sure you can think of others, that I may have not mentioned here.

However, when one considers the history of the time and the political change that would follow, the (Dr. Martin Luther King) “I Have a Dream” speech would be my choice for best political speech of the last century in America. If your choice lies elsewhere, then we can agree to disagree.

Mario

chela asked:


Thanks to everyone! But I would like to better understand how politics was shaped becuase of this army.

Jorge

Randy Bisenz asked:


Throughout history political leaders have used the Politics of Fear to motivate the public into supporting their agendas. If the general public believe that something or someone threatens their lives, livelihoods, or lifestyles they tend to concede power to government and authority figures. This makes it easy for unethically savvy leaders to make just about whatever they wish to have happen – happen. Sometimes the Politics of Fear are frightfully effective. After WWI the Nazis managed to convince the public that Jews were gong to take everything away from them. The German citizens were told that the Jews were a threat to their livelihoods and lifestyles. The citizens of Germany gave their power away to the Nazis and found themselves living in a harsh police state that committed the largest genocide in history. One characteristic of societies that are ruled by the Politics of Fear is that they tend not to deliver prosperity to anyone except for a handful of insiders. The only economics that work very well with the Politics of Fear are to devote a significant part of the economy to the business of war and enforcement. When more of the economy is devoted to these activities livings conditions and civil liberties suffer. The culture becomes repressive. On the other hand the Politics of Hope tend to stimulate economic growth, and skew that growth away from war and enforcement and into things like entertainment, travel, and investment. People are much more likely to spend and invest if they feel hopeful about the future. People are much more likely to give to charity in a climate of hope and optimism. This produces a culture that is expansive and promotes freedom and expression.
Creating an environment of hope and optimism is the job of leadership. It is disturbing to see that when society is threatened or at war that most leaders begin to talk in pessimistic tones – as if this is the only way they can appear seriously concerned about what is going on. This however, is the signature of minds that lack vision or the ability to inspire. It is especially important to maintain a hopeful and optimistic attitude during times of challenge or hardship. This is how we are able to emerge from trying circumstances with the greatest amount of momentum. Consider what leadership did to help us emerge from the Great Depression. FDR talked about opportunity and led the way for business by investing in the country’s infrastructure and creating jobs. Think about the stock market. Stocks rise and fall on the perception that things are going to get better or worse for a particular company or the economy as a whole. Great leaders are able to inspire the public and instill a feeling of we can do this in the minds and hearts of citizens. This approach stimulates the Will of the People to take on challenges that otherwise seem too daunting. Willpower is perhaps the most important quality required to persevere, overcome adversity and emerge victorious. It is certainly possible to motivate people through fear – but it is nowhere near as powerful as stimulating their will through inspiration. Our society faces some of the greatest challenges in the history of humankind. We need great leaders to inspire us to do whatever is necessary to move through these challenges as efficiently as possible so we can create and maintain a high quality of life on planet Earth. Remember this when you vote. Vote for the candidate with the best visionary and leadership potential. This will be the person capable of seeing through the problems to the solutions and communicating this vision to the public. Such a leader can inspire the hope and optimism necessary to summons the collective will of the people to move beyond our challenges and towards a brighter future for all. Support these leaders and we can transform the Politics of Fear into the Politics of Hope. In closing I suggest you read Restoring Democracy, an article on the Bright Future website. It contains clues about why we tend to elect politicians instead of leaders, and how we change this trend.

Tamara

Peter Peterka asked:


No grouping of human beings is without some amount of politics. Managing deployment of Six Sigma in your organization will unavoidably run into some personal issues and conflict. However, with deft handling of the personal and political issues that come up, along with patience and perseverance, your Six Sigma deployment will not get derailed.

Political factors that can affect a Six Sigma project include personal resistance to change, inflexible company policies, and incompatibility with existing organizational methods and goals. Not surprisingly, all of these factors also affect business processes of any kind. They are not unique to Six Sigma. This is one of Six Sigma’s strengths: realistically acknowledging the way politics work in an organization. Six Sigma is not just number crunching. It understands the importance of and encourages the involvement of people throughout and at all levels of the organization working together toward a common goal. Six Sigma encourages planning, communication, and openness about processes, procedures, and information.

Many people see change, any change, as loss—a loss of their power or a loss of the security of the old way of doing things. Thus, people are prone to defend the old way, out of habit and out of unease. They wonder how change will affect them and what exactly happens behind the scenes and if they don’t know, become apprehensive. This is a problem that can be overcome through communication. Six Sigma successes require clear and open communication at all levels. Any change in an organization will meet some resistance, either intentional or just from inertia. When management can effectively communicate that it is behind that change and can communicate the positive aspects of the change, resistance and “turf” politics can be countered and overcome.

Another problem is people who disregard the value and power of Six Sigma and consequently, they are reluctant to support Six Sigma projects. To the uninitiated, Six Sigma may appear similar to or simply an evolution of other quality programs. There have been so many quality improvement fads over the years. It is not surprising that people are now a little jaded. Others may see Six Sigma as solely another cost-cutting or productivity enhancement fad. This is a short-sighted view. Six Sigma is neither a fad nor just another quality initiative. It is a “way of life.” It is a multi-level, cyclical movement toward continual process improvement. The quality improvement fads sell themselves as cheap and easy quick fixes. The reality is that there are no quick fixes to significant process improvement. Six Sigma understands that; it is not a simple quick process. However, the right Six Sigma training and information will help people to understand that Six Sigma is significantly different; it is a robust continuous improvement strategy and process.

Once projects are begun, Six Sigma projects can become a battle of wills for control over which strategy, approach, or tool is used. Team meetings can devolve into arguments over which measurement to use, how it will be calculated, which charts will be generated, whether to use DMAIC or DMADV, etc. Six Sigma is not about making things more difficult. It is about using common sense to make things easier. It is certainly about recognizing that there is more than one road to improvement and more than one right answer to a problem.

In overcoming political problems, the leadership of senior management is critical. Successful Six Sigma programs are built on a solid organizational foundation. The organizational structure and system needs to be clearly identified and communicated to the entire organization to successfully implement Six Sigma Quality. Becoming a Six Sigma organization doesn’t just happen. Planning and training goes into setting up a successful Six Sigma organization. Employee roles and responsibilities must be established and clearly communicated to all. For many companies successful in Six Sigma, the key factor has been the direct involvement of their top leaders.

Six Sigma is about getting everyone involved. A Six Sigma project forms a team of people who work together to identify problems and develop solutions. Such teams are not isolated teams rearranging the world for everyone else to live in. These teams are serving the organization by employing the skills and tools they have learned to increase quality and reduce defects. Instilling the team concept along with expert training will go a long way toward solving potential political troubles in your organization.

Julie