Politics for Dummies
, by Delaney, Ann M.- ISBN: 9781119652953 | 1119652952
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 1/2/2020
Get up to speed on the U.S. political system
Confused by caucuses, primaries, and pollsters? Puzzled by the various parties and special interest groups? Politics For Dummies has everything you need to understand local, state, and national politics; how to communicate with your elected officials; and what your representatives can do for you.
You’ll find out all about lobbying groups, sub-committees, the government branches, and how elections work. Also included is new information on how to use online tools and social media to find out what legislation is on the floor, what issues are before the Supreme Court, and when congress and the Supreme Court are in session.
- Understand the United States political system
- Learn more about the three branches of U.S. government
- Discover the differences in federal, state, and local operations
- Get need-to-know information for involvement
This book cuts through the political jargon and provides clear, up-to-date details about everything from legislation to polls to presidential elections in the United States—and explains how you can become a political player yourself.
Ann M. DeLaney is currently a Standing Trustee in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy for the Southern District of Indiana. She was the first woman to serve as Chair of a major political party in Indiana and the first woman nominated by a major party as a candidate for Indiana Lieutenant Governor. She has been a delegate to state and national party conventions.
Introduction 1
What is Politics? 1
Why You Need This Book 3
How to Use This Book 4
How This Book is Organized 4
Part 1: Politics and You 4
Part 2: Making Your Voice Heard 4
Part 3: Politics is a Team Sport 5
Part 4: It’s All Marketing 5
Part 5: Let the Campaigns Begin! 5
Part 6: Presidential Politics 5
Part 7: The Part of Tens 5
Icons Used in This Book 6
Where to Go from Here 6
Part 1: Politics and You 7
Chapter 1: It’s Politics, Baby! 9
Elected Politicians — a Quick Look 9
Federal officials 10
State officials 12
Local officials 13
Politics versus Government 14
Politics has spin doctors 14
The government has spokespeople 15
What Do You Want from Your Elected Officials? 17
Chapter 2: The Money-versus-Vote Analysis 19
The Factors behind Any Political Stance 19
Weighing public opinion 20
Counting the money 21
Money Makes the World Go ’Round 23
Fundraising 23
Leverage and money 23
Senate money 24
Hatred is a Greater Motivator than Love 25
Evil versus good 25
But who is the bad guy? 25
Your Stake in the Election 26
Is the legislation good for you? 26
Does the legislation touch your life? 28
Part 2: Making Your Voice Heard 29
Chapter 3: Be a Part of the Solution — Vote! 31
Should You Register to Vote? 32
Upsides and downsides of registering 32
Why Vote in Primaries? 36
Taking your chance to choose the candidate 36
Declaring your party affiliation 37
Do Elected Officials Care What You Think? 38
Your opinions are worth real money 38
Giving voters what they say they want 40
Chapter 4: Contributing Your Time or Money 43
Donating Your Time 43
Finding your niche 44
Spending your time well 46
Money Talks 47
Deciding who should get your money 48
Putting your wallet away 49
Knowing what to expect 49
Which Kind of Contributor Are You? 50
Party backers 50
Ideological givers 51
Kingmakers (and queenmakers) 53
Special interest groups 54
Chapter 5: Telling Politicians What’s on Your Mind 55
Reaching Out and Touching Your Representatives 56
Town Meetings 58
Putting It in Writing 59
More sometimes means less 60
Multiplying your opinion 60
Teamwork is the Name of the Game 62
Other officials 62
Recognized organizations 63
The media 63
Part 3: Politics is a Team Sport 67
Chapter 6: Partying with Politics 69
Why We Have Only Two Parties 69
The big-tent theory 70
Third parties 72
Independent candidates 73
Departing from the party 73
Voters value independence 74
Legislation requires cooperation 74
Those Were the Days 75
Television and the decline of party power 76
The cost of campaigning 76
Contributors gain the upper hand 76
Voters can be duped 77
Straight-Ticket Voting versus Ticket Splitting 78
Political Parties Serve a Purpose 79
Ensuring a fair election 79
Getting out the vote 81
Providing information 83
Amplifying your voice 84
Choosing the Candidates 85
Party nominees 85
Primaries 87
Conventions 88
The role of ideology in candidate selection 89
Chapter 7: Taking Sides 91
Putting Parties in Their Place 91
Identifying by Political Party 92
Registering as a Democrat or Republican 93
Asserting your independence 94
Joining a third party 95
Separating the Democrats from the Republicans 96
Running with the elephants 98
Joining the donkeys 99
Making Your Own Choice 100
Evaluating the platforms 100
Listening to the candidates 101
Chapter 8: Joining a Special Interest Group 103
Identifying Special Interest Groups 104
Enlisting Lobbyists 105
What a good lobbyist does 106
Special interests and the government 107
Making Political Contributions 109
Getting action with PACs 110
Contributing to nonlegislative candidates 113
I’ll help you if you help me 114
Getting the Same Access as Special Interest Groups 115
Are Special Interest Groups Contributing Your Money? 115
Finding out who contributes 116
Local races 117
State races 117
Federal races 118
Chapter 9: Getting Political Online 121
Understanding Politics on the Internet 122
Government Websites versus Campaign Websites 122
Engaging with Elected Officials and Candidates Online 124
Visiting a website 125
Subscribing to an email list 126
Liking a Facebook page 127
Following a Twitter account 129
Sample resources 130
Part 4: It’s All Marketing 131
Chapter 10: Harry Handler Meets Carly Candidate 133
Handling a Campaign 134
Examining the profile of a political handler 134
Moving around within the party 135
Working for a common goal 135
Developing a Marketing Strategy 136
Checking out the candidate’s appearance 136
Improving a candidate’s image 138
Identifying the message 141
Responding to a Handler’s Controls 146
Chapter 11: Selling the Candidates, Warts and All 149
Fixing the Warts: A Nip Here, a Tuck There 149
Let’s get personal: Personal questions 150
Just for the record: Officeholder record 152
Oops — I forgot about that: Illegal warts 153
But I’m innocent!: Legal warts 153
Some professions are just wart-filled 154
Preparing for the Worst: Handlers Dig for Dirt 156
Beware of Your Opponent: Fending Off Attacks 156
Ignore the attack 156
Tell the rest of the story 157
Diffuse the wart 157
Take the offensive and attack first 159
Insist that candidates should always tell the truth 159
Highlighting a Candidate’s Beauty Marks 160
Celebrating a candidate’s upbringing 160
Making the most of a candidate’s parents 161
How important are beauty marks? 162
Chapter 12: Truth in Advertising 163
Truth Plus Truth Doesn’t Always Equal Fact 163
Drawing a false conclusion 164
The art of set-up legislation 165
The Media Can Help You 167
Getting the media analysis you need 168
Hounding your news media: Review the ads and get on the stick! 169
Whose Side Are the Media On, Anyway? 169
Taking the good with the bad 170
Acknowledging that there’s such a thing as being too objective 170
If You’re on Your Own 172
Listening to neutral parties 173
Learning the truth yourself 173
Don’t Let Either Side Manipulate You 175
Beware of straw men or appeals to emotion 175
If you don’t want to be manipulated . . . 179
It’s Go-Time: Demanding Answers to Your Questions from Candidates 180
Chapter 13: Casting That Vote! 181
Reach Out and Ask Someone: Others Can Help You Decide 181
Voting by party 182
If Frank likes this guy . . . 182
Checking out endorsements 183
Making Up Your Own Mind 183
Gathering information 184
Looking to the campaigns 185
Making your choice 185
Knowing when to make your decision 187
Part 5: Let the Campaigns Begin 189
Chapter 14: Who Says Talk is Cheap? (Where Your Contribution Goes) 191
Campaigning at the Local Level 191
Going door-to-door 192
Alternative contacts 193
National and Statewide Campaigns 195
You have to see it (on TV) to believe it 195
Buying the time 198
Getting Out the Vote: Just Do It! 199
Where Your Money Won’t Go 200
Campaigns Never Say, “Enough!” 200
Fundraising wars 201
Looking beyond the money 203
Chapter 15: For Whom the Campaign Polls 205
The Role of Polls 206
Who gets polled? 206
Who polls? 208
Polls Are Expensive 209
Size of the sample 209
Length of the poll 210
Benchmark Polls 211
Knowing what to expect 211
Learning from the pollsters 213
Telling pollsters which arguments persuade you 213
Is the Candidate’s Message Getting Through? 214
Chapter 16: Dodging the Issues: What You Can Do 215
Tough-versus-Trivial Issues in a Campaign 216
To win, a candidate must build support 216
Proposing change is risky: I’ll take vanilla instead 218
Sticking to symbolic issues 218
Using Diversions to Avoid Risks 219
Dodging with diversions 220
Diversions may not build support, but they don’t jeopardize it, either 221
Stick to Your Guns! 221
Speaking up at local forums 221
Getting help from the media 222
Completing candidate questionnaires 223
When all else fails, don’t forget the direct approach 224
Chapter 17: Campaigning for Your Vote 225
Launching a Direct Mail Campaign 226
Freedom from scrutiny 226
Advantage of the delayed reaction 226
Target the right voters 227
Why is your mailbox full of political mail? 228
And Now a Word from Our Sponsors 230
When and how candidates advertise on TV 231
Are you a target? 232
Attack of the Killer Phone Calls! 233
Chapter 18: Negative Campaigning: The Dark Side of Politics 235
The More Things Change 235
Slinging mud in the 1800s 236
Joining the TV generation 238
Two Important Principles of Campaign Communications 239
Candidates try to make you like them 239
Candidates try to make you dislike the opponent 240
Separating the Good from the Bad 241
Above-the-belt ads 241
Below-the-belt ads 243
Selling Negativity 248
Product comparisons 248
Laughter covers faults 249
Why Use Negative Advertising? 249
Countering Negative Campaigns 250
Preventing negative campaigning from discouraging good candidates 251
Give ’em a pat on the back 252
Chapter 19: The Money Thing: Is Reform Possible? 253
Campaigns Cost Too Much 253
Contributors get better access to politicians 254
Voters end up paying 254
Campaign Finance Reform 255
Federal campaigns 255
State campaigns 257
Getting More Good People Involved 259
You Can Improve the System 260
Part 6: Presidential Politics 263
Chapter 20: Throwing Their Hats in the Ring 265
Welcome to Iowa 266
Welcome to New Hampshire 266
Being the first 267
Who goes to Iowa and New Hampshire? 267
Getting off to a good start 268
Staying in the Spotlight 270
Getting a bounce 270
The media can also hurt 271
A day at the races 272
Conducting Straw Polls 274
Introducing the Nominees 275
Chapter 21: Getting the Party Started: National Party Conventions 277
Sending Delegates to the National Convention 277
Conventions don’t choose presidential nominees 278
What happens at the national conventions? 280
The Politics of the Conventions 282
Creating the right effect 282
Concentrating partisan energies 283
Playing Your Role as a Voter 283
Chapter 22: The Electoral College and the 2000 and 2016 Presidential Elections 285
Explaining How the Electoral College Affected the 2000 and 2016 Elections 286
Examining the Electoral College’s Messy History 288
Looking at other controversial elections 289
Gauging the impact of the electoral college 290
Arguing for the electoral college 291
Arguing against the electoral college 292
Changing the Electoral College 293
Chapter 23: Filling Some Really Big Shoes: Electing a President 295
Contributing to the Nominee 296
Shaping a Candidate’s Message 297
Identifying issues in your region 298
Keeping candidates abreast of change 298
Acknowledging that the primary message may not be the final message 299
Acquiring the Information You Need to Vote for President 300
The media loves a presidential campaign 301
Turning to nontraditional media: Can we talk? 301
The Electoral College and You 303
The road to 270 electoral votes 303
The candidate versus the party 305
A Game of Strategy 306
The game plan: Vote, and vote for me! 307
You are the target 308
Volunteer in a presidential campaign 308
Part 7: The Part of Tens 311
Chapter 24: The Ten Commandments of Modern Politics 313
All Politics is Local 313
You Can’t Beat Somebody with Nobody 314
Dance with the One That Brung Ya 314
Never Say Never 314
The Three Most Important Ingredients in Politics: Money, Money, and Money 314
It Ain’t Over ’til It’s Over 315
The Harder You Work, the Luckier You Get 315
The Best Defense is a Good Offense 315
You’re Never Too Far Ahead 315
Most Political Wounds Are Self-Inflicted 316
Chapter 25: Ten Things to Teach Your Children About Politics 317
Voting Isn’t Only Your Right — It’s Your Duty 317
Public Service is a Good and Honorable Profession 318
Never Pin Your Future to the Outcome of the Next Election 318
Never Trust Anyone Who Lies, Including a Politician 319
Democracy is the Best System of Government 319
Avoiding Politics Makes You More to Blame for Its Failures, Not Less 320
Learn the Facts and Form Your Own Opinions 320
You Have to Wait ’til 18 to Vote, but You Don’t Have to Wait ’til 18 to Help Others Vote Wisely 320
Politicians Are Just Like the Rest of Us 321
When Politicians Make You Promises, Make Sure You Want What They’re Promising 321
Chapter 26: Ten Common Political Mistakes 323
Believing That Anything is Secret 323
Giving a Reporter an Interview “Off the Record” 324
Failing to Answer an Opponent’s Attack 324
Promising Not to Run for Reelection 324
Not Taking a Poll 325
Taking a Poll and Ignoring the Results 325
Not Knowing When to Retire 325
Believing That Public Officials Can Have a Private Life 325
Thinking That the Federal Treasury is Your Piggy Bank 326
Failing to Follow the Strict Letter of the Law 326
Chapter 27: Ten (or so) Quotable Quotes 327
On Politics 327
On Being President 327
Did I Really Say That? 328
On Participation 328
On the Press 329
Appendix: State ID Voting Requirements 331
Index 353
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