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USA Participation in Politics - Coggle Diagram
USA Participation in Politics
Voting
in US anyone over age of 18 can vote in all elections
election types
presidental
congressional
mayoral
state govenor
in 2020 there was 67% voter turnout in presidental election = 158 million
lets citizens participate in politics = they can vote for candidates/partys that match their political views and concerns
not everyone can actually vote
Non-US Citizens + People in jail
2019 immigrant learning centre = 44 million immigrants in the USA
2018 - 1,465,200 people in jail
means that in 2018 there were more than 45 million people in the US that couldn't vote
2018 Midterm elections had a low voting turnout
49.2%
experts suggest this is due to several reasons including
race = many Hispanics don't have US citizen ship = cannot vote
less interest in midterms
limits oppurtunititys = 45 million people cannot vote in US
overall = opportunity to participate in politics via voting = limited = 45 million people cannot vote purely due to the fact that they are not American's and the crimes they have committed.
Protesting
first amendment = all US citizens have the right to peacefully protest their government to change or address issues
successful example = Jan 2017 womens marches = 3 million people across USA protested the Trump Adin due to to percieved threat to human, reproductive and civil rights
shows how people have oppurtunity to participate in politics = able to march for their rights without interference
however its not always the case
2020 BLM gov intervened with harsh crowd control measures
Black Lives matters were a global march that happened in May 2020 that started in US due to police brutality + discrimination against Black people in the US
sparked by murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis cop
BLM organisation filed a lawsuit against the Trump Admin due to events of June 1st where Trump ordered military and police enforcement including:
Military police
National Gaurd
D.C Park police
use crowd control weapons including
tear gas
flash bombs
rubber bullets
this was all upon peaceful protestors outside the white house
the lawsuit also argued that Trump denied the people the right to peacefully protest by telling state governors to use the national guard on protests + enforce a curfew
this shows that oppurtunities to paricipate in politics is limited because the government sometimes interferes with harsh measures on innocent people which goes against the consitition
overall = somewhat limited = whilst majority of the time people can protest without interference, however occasionally the government will intervene
standing as candidate
anyone in the US can stand as candidate in elections as long as they are born in US + meet the age requirements
age requirements
25 for house of reps
30 for senate
35 for president
this means not just politicians can run for president, anyone technically can
Billionaire Business Man Donald Trump ran in 2016 for president and won
Kayne "Ye" West ran in several states for pres in 2020 but failed
this shows how people have the opportunity to participate in politics = anyone can stand in an election except for people that are too young or not born in the US
however the harsh reality is that candidates need massive sums of money to stand in major elections
in 2016 more than $4 billion was spent in total by all candidates who ran for congress
the average spending to win a seat in senate was 10.4 million
in 2016 Trump and Clinton spent around $1 billion between them on their presidential campaigns
this shows how restricted it is = only the extremely rich can run for president
overall standing as a candidate = extremely limited = only the small minority of millionaires can actually run in major elections
joining a party
people can join a wide range of partys
democrats
in 2020 they had 47.5 million members
republicans
33.2 million members
libertarians
609k
womens party
constitution party
118k
green party
246k
joining a party allows you to:
suggest ideas
preselect/choose candidates
help election campaigns
count votes
this shows that Americans can take part in politics = they can support/help their chosen party + influence who their candidate will be which can impact the partys electoral results
however only 2 partys ever do well in elections, democrats and republicans
in 2021 congress was all dem or rep except for 2 independent senators
Bernie Sanders and Angus King
shows how limited it is = if you actually want to make a difference you can only chose between 2 partys
overall = limited since you can only make difference with dem or rep