Political Campaigns

Political Campaigns

A campaign usually involves groups of people following a plan and working together in different ways to achieve what they want.

A campaign be used to help elect a candidate, spread awareness about a certain issue in a community or even try to sell you something like companies do during advertising
campaigns.

Political Campaigns

A political campaign usually involves groups of people following a plan and working together in different ways to get what they want. This usually involves meeting with voters, giving speeches and making advertisements about what the candidate hopes to achieve.

Campaigns are usually assisted by the candidates own
political party. In the United States, the two main political
groups are the Democrats and Republicans

Not all that different from Advertising Campaigns

Political campaigns are similar to the advertising
campaigns that companies run on TV, in Magazines, and on social media everyday. The only difference is that in an advertising campaign a company wants you to buy a product, while political campaigns try to convince you to vote for a candidate.

Match

1. What is a political campaign? How is a political campaign similar to an advertising campaign?

• When people work together to try and spread awareness about something.

• When a politician and the people that work for them try to convince people to vote them into a certain public office.

• When a company tries to convince you to purchase or buy something.

Campaign

Political Campaign

Advertising Campaign

• Campaign

• Political Campaign

• Advertising Campaign

Multiple Select

Which of these things do politicians do during a campaign?

Choose all that apply

• Convince people to vote for them

• Hold rallies and town hall meetings different communities

• Participate in debates

• Tell people about their beliefs on different issues and policies and how they will help the community

• Spend a lot of money trying to get people to vote for them

Political Parties

In the long history of the United States, only one president, George Washington, did not represent a political party.

The Constitution that Washington helped draft in 1787, the Constitution our government still operates under today, makes no mention of political parties, and it clearly did not anticipate them. As originally ratified, the United States Constitution declared that the second-place vote getter in the presidential election would serve as vice president. It was not until 1804, with the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment, that this changed.

Political parties as we know them today began to take shape while Washington was in office. By 1794 there was an emerging split between two distinct visions for the future of the country. Groups
calling themselves Democratic Republican Societies began to appear in cities around the nation. They would form the opposition to the Federalist Party, something that frightened many people, including George Washington.

Multiple Choice

Read each statement. Which one is false?

• 1. George Washington belonged to a political party.

• 2. The Constitution does not say anything about political parties.

• 3. The Constitution originally said that the person who came in 2nd place in the presidential election became vice president.

• 4. The first two political parties in the United State were the Federalists and the Democratic Republican

Washington's Thoughts on Political Parties

Washington remained above the fray; he wanted to be a president of all the American citizens. The most important reason was he believed unity, not division, was necessary for a democratic republic to survive. Washington believed that political parties would divide and destroy the young United States.

His thought, in what became known as the Farewell Address in 1796, is clear as he stated:

the spirit of party serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the
public administration. It agitates the community with jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection.

Throughout his political life, and until his death in 1799, George Washington was confident that the
country could and should function without the existence of political parties.

Match

What do you think each of the words below mean?

• Make weak

• 
  

  To make someone feel worried or angry

• Instigate or stir up

• A violent uprising against an authority or government.

Enfeeble

Agitate

Foment

Insurrection

• Enfeeble

• Agitate

• Foment

• Insurrection

Multiple Choice

What do you think George Washington meant when he said:

"the spirit of party serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the
public administration. It agitates the community with jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection"?

• Political parties have no impact on the community.
• Political parties cause division and conflict within the community.
• Political parties promote unity and cooperation within the community.

Party Politics Today

Today the major political parties are professional organizations with national offices in Washington, D.C. The parties work not only to recruit, nominate, and support presidential candidates, but also to support politicians and policies at the state and local levels.

One additional responsibility of modern political parties that has become even more critical and often controversial is fundraising. With the invention of new technologies that enable party messages to be distributed quickly to large numbers of people, the cost of political campaigns has risen higher than the balloons that float away at the end of presidential conventions.

In fact, Just one 30-second TV commercial can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and political parties help candidates raise the money that they need to pay for these advertisements, and/or run the ads for the candidate themselves. In fact, it is extremely difficult to get elected to a political office without the help of a political party.

Answer question

5 on today's


handout

Poll

Do you think a two party system is best when electing representatives? Or do you think it would be better if people had more than two option?

• 2 Party System

• More Options!

Answer the last question on today's handout

Poll

Answer the final question on your handout.

• I have finished

• I am not done