Of People and Politics; 1; The Voter

oh move and in the great american citizen possibly are my understanding of democracy well it's an oregon was the citizens are ones and make decisions as

big as it is he came to pittsburgh it's b but liberty and everything or winning is a lot of throwing experience because at that time i am more mindful than ever of our precious

heritage breed of reality certainly this is the idealized version of a democracy every vote counts and bullied as a sacred for this program is about the american who he is who he is not why he believes the weekend i mean a national educational television network presents of people and more than one quarter of the way americans are left with a political system under which they live over here is going to be enough on november third nineteen sixty four we americans will for the forty fifth time choose a president of the united states before them they will be conventions which h l mencken described as well there as ugly

stupid teachers and yet try them the grassroots campaigns booms and bad why and backroom in for and if we want to know about american politics we should begin with the american voter is it what he thinks it's what it claims to be or what the politicians say he acts but during a profile of the total electorate we can begin to see why so many different political animals behave the way they do the american voter what are the facts about this mythical creature well there are one hundred and ten million who tend to vote is in this country nineteen sixty almost seventy million went to the polls the highest number up four years later we again choose a president and the political scientists will remind the working politicians of these traits of the electorate americans are living longer seventy million of the eligible voters over sixty five

one half over forty and in general people with a service in the more conservative history is that lesson these older people are vitally interested in social security and the medicare age then affix the wave of older thinks anbar as one half of the eligible voters are less than five thousand dollars a year and the voter is affected by his cocked up by good times and there are well over more likely to vote and to participate in politics than those of lesser incomes so that one and earns affects the way he thinks and votes three fourths of all voters have never finished high school only one in thirteen has completed call again the educated are more likely to vote and to participate in politics than those without education education aspects the way the motor thinks and votes america has become less work mortar more and more voters are

leaving the farm and our small towns for the city the city for the summer and as a result the changing aspirations and assimilation voting blocs political scientists still more about the effect of mobility on the board but it does keep some people from voting nineteen sixties some thirty million americans over twenty one did not vote for president if voting is a sacred pretty much what did they not well richard stana director of the united states bureau of the census specter seemed to be about evenly divided between those who couldn't vote legally and those who can but didn't vote in the first row we meet the requirement of the state in which they live they haven't been in their house or their apartment or on their farm long enough to qualify for the six months or year that are required before they can become eligible voters in there and in other instances they haven't paid a poll tax and local taxes been outlawed now for federal

elections thank you so much he would ban people from the polls and in some others that are unfortunately efforts to keep money goes to distance away from the polls by all sorts of legal and some illegal strategy or over federal us now living on federal reservations like the races for example out of yellowstone national park they can vote either because they are eligible under state are there other smaller obstacles in the law as well the voting but these seemed to be the major one another half of our people don't vote simply because they don't want to vote they are eligible they've lived long enough in the area they can pass the literacy test that's that they got back about they just don't vote they're apathetic fact confirm they are involved perhaps they don't feel like the candidates are

the issues are important enough to justify their taking the time to pull over a mark about in election our guest is that here in america the swipe amount to about half of the thirty million who don't know what i think we can say and we can say with charity and that those who are qualified the great majority to invoke the rules for american democracy issue of those who can induce seventy five percent i think of themselves as democrats or republicans twenty five percent are regarded as into what determines whether a person votes with one party or the education you get poet laureate twenty eleven and honestly

tell you what your religion and i'm thinking i'm telling you have your income is under five thousand between nine and ten thousand are over and the changes that are likely to vote democratic a research firm in washington provided the default the key and social and economic factors affecting voter preference is taking these facts you mean each the statistical waited carried in the nineteen sixty election a honeywell company programmed its age fourteen and raghida processor at wellesley hill massachusetts two hundred and thirty miles away at new york city's long island railroad terminal the age fourteen hundred was tied by ordinary telephone lines this information gathering telephone survey was conducted by professor albert heard of the eagleton institute of politics at rutgers university the processes automatic the questions are asked them tied through this machine and in less

than five seconds a computer wave the various factors and determine what our eyes and ears cannot is this man a democrat or a republican would you mind telling us your income is under five thousand between five and ten he's besieged as you're likely to use his book is blue where do you live a larger life tell you if your religious tuition if you find value in your income is under five thousand green five and ten thousand are over ten between bargain thankfully she says which are likely to vote democratic

age sex location education income and religious background we carry these with us to the voting rights influence the way we go as well as whether we watch or young people tend to be democrats older voters tend to favor the republicans big city people are very likely to be democrats except in the south small town people and farmers are kept the lead on the republican as the movement away from farms and small towns accelerates the sheriff's affect voting patterns are westerns tend to be republican jews and catholics seemed to favor the democrats women are more apt to vote republican then they're also less likely to vote it all the more educated you want more likely you want to vote republican except at the highest education level is wealthier you want a more likely you want to well republicans generally speaking the new immigrant groups favor the

democrats and regaining key cities with in key electoral states but there are some combinations of factors which a machine cannot measure a real estate agent last march sixty three interview to say fourteen with seventy feet from new york one of twenty three of fifty five telling you what your religion is islamic or sincerity is a figure like your income is under five thousand dollars between five and ten thousand are over ten thousand he says if you're like you know there are always exceptions but there is one constant the republican or a democrat on democrat parents is that why you decided to be a democrat

thank you are your parents republican or democratic nominee i have all my life a lot of times i my father was republican and my mother was a democrat and my father converted or low lows republicans do democrats want to attend a joke from whence came to is that they're asking what it has to sign a socialist says how

congress he says we follow the socialist party rally follows socialism chavez said the inspectors and bobby jindal in the case if you follow the road iran following the group party loyalty most often begins in childhood it is primarily the result of inheritance and upbringing however outside events have tempered the loyalties of large social groups in nineteen twenty eight the nomination of a catholic announcement president of the united states affected the image of the democratic or reinforcing the democratic tendencies but some catholics and driving some protestants out of the polling at that time in the same way presently image of the republican party was for many voters by the depression but times and the vote a blatantly party of herbert hoover for the economic damage before nineteen thirty jews voted as much as eighty percent republican today most use a solidly in the democratic and some political scientists attribute such loyalty to franklin roosevelt strong stand against evil

crime wave no not them tell me we do not capture government are up route emerson people from the well but they are built we do not and then at the upper ends of racial out rosalee ministry funerals attracted many negro voters to the democratic party even today parties and candidates expand great efforts keeping ethnic voting blocs in law in nineteen sixty a telephone call from john f kennedy to the wife of jailed civil rights leader martin luther king reinforced the negroes allegiance to the democrats now should the politician continue to woo ethnic groups james foley former democratic national champ i think it should be done away with it's just an illusion that the leaders

have attacked them apprentice named kevin durant and thirty minutes someone of some of the most mr grupe undertaken some content and some states has a large polish population they have a polish nominee when one party doesn't the other doesn't kill and so on that they notify as effectively and i don't think it's important now as it was maybe twenty five or thirty years ago if oil american voters could be sorted and tabulated and of all the variables could be accounted for we probably could predict the outcome of every election but just as there are factors which tend to make one voter democrat and another or republican they're also a striking number of exceptions and exceptions such as these cannot always be programmed through a computer census bureau chief richard stamp artist sure there are a lot of statistical indices to categorize people as republicans or democrats typically i'm a much money then they can lure father's mother's words on only two that there are a lot of people are

don't fit into any of these categories that a lot of folks who just don't add up to statistics as far as the computers are concerned for example we can talk about the jewish voters of interstate being mainly democratic and they are and yet senator jake evans of new york was a republican is jewish i'm sure that everyone knows of instances where sons and daughters do follow their parents' political feelings but they also know of instances where they go or where we had cases that don't involve just individual they've taken hold groups across pressures within these groups one specific one of a cursed a minute across i sure on some order statement southern democrats in nineteen sixty caused by the religious issue many of these men and women wear traditional democrats some of them might have been doubtful about voting for a roman catholic for president of the united states but when john kennedy was the candidate and to be apart from

more of the republicans and all about that we have a great group of americans in the classified as independent twenty five percent of the electorate considers itself independent and the votes of this group one never in the bed drive apply or solace a lot things people professor howard berman chairman of the political science department georgetown university as i'm about independent voter in the united states there is a very longstanding according to independent voter is the ideal time with fellow citizens set up and is the president was only waits until the end of the campaign in an esthetic they haven't fallen independent as a lot of actual is next to the empathetic called citizen customs only a tiny percentage or for next to the empathetic a citizen in london says that least inform one who

a frequently employed mostly avoids going through political means is not really just another words their independence by courtesy only say they are and they accepted by the pollsters as people who are in pain approximately one or two percent of the voters and correspond with its main person who really does lead to the end of the campaign to listen to the candidates for these animals the late fees will live in hostilities they're less likely to have that land they uninformed so called independents because of those were not permitted democrats republicans and independents do they really care about politics how much do they not only interested in the issue is when a national sample was taken at present plays politics far down on their list of important concerns coming

after finances family personally at various times also large portions of a given electorate have been revealed as ignorant about the first ten amendments to the constitution the name of that congressmen are only specific views of their own pocket a to an electorate without a concept of due process the current civil rights proposals before congress could have little meaning to an electorate which does not understand the concept of parody no amount of talk about the foam problem will make much sense in a lot of eleven polls taken between nineteen fifty eight and nineteen sixty three the american voter is concerned with international and national problems was revealed as limited temporary they voted gave almost as much attention to the sports pages into the funnies page as he did to the hard nosed elite have just skimmed the headlines the great bulk of our bodies some forty five percent of saudi issues and the candidate almost exclusively in terms of their own specific group interest and some eighteen percent indicated that issues one are all important to them by law should

martin vote is on not ideological if they have any ideology it will it is according to most political observers extremely optimistic jennifer we seem truly believe that no people honor that a government we are and that voting is the primary instrument for progress and change in government we contribute to this project's political scientist donald heard were great startling political fact of life is that about one tenth of one percent of all the eligible voters in this country are really what we would call a political animal these are the people who discuss the issues write letters to their congressmen and senators and other government officials who man the local trenches during political campaign will give money to their political parties into their candidates the rest of us may occasionally do some of these things are all but not on a regular continuing basis the fact is that

about seventy three percent of the american people think that they've exercised their civic and political responsibilities when i managed to get to the polls on election day most americans have a sports page interest in politics a new politics is a game and they do like to know who's ahead who's on first was in the batting circle but that's about as far as they go they get their information mainly from radio intelligence sources most voters voters are really interested in the nation and that's not too surprising considering that while they were in school their school system probably try to evade the issues as much as possible now that they're out on their own they're too concerned with their daily personal problems and government and politics just doesn't get in the way very often sometimes when a voter the city's paying attention he really is and some of the studies of the impact of the debates in nineteen

sixty clearly demonstrate that they show that when vice president nixon was talking to supporters of senator kennedy were listening and that when senator kennedy was talking many of the supporters of vice president nixon paid no attention either right now fifty percent of the american voters have already made up their minds to when they're going to support in november by the end of the political conventions at the end of the summer another twenty five percent made up their mind this means that seventy five percent of the american people already determined who they will support in november well before the political campaigns have actually gotten underway unlike camp a veteran campaigner at james foley answers that question will effect of campaigning because both parties a stand for different principles and the issues that they have different sides on the issue isn't as necessary to convince other is i think about ten

percent of the population would call them independent you will that they changed their votes from time to time particularly in national and state elections and frequently it's a close falling situation major debate turns out some candidates at a campaign event started off a way far down the ladder in order to make themselves known only get their record and the arena before the bombing they feel as though they have to campaign and olive oil you know where you do it the road starting at the bottom twenty five years ago this man campaign as a republican in nebraska and some collective state ordered since then ray johnson has successfully wooed nebraska voters thirteen straight talk so success is not spoil easily johnson he still needs to campaign but to get into a district and what they're going through

it shows a great universe of abbas until the rest of the boston the great movie the rest the white media didn't have a foot was a policy this in places year was popular thing ever put up those who use of our young people mr penn no thing that we if they want to use a lot of them but the intrepid a shallow things that the day was more has your own niche market with a little research he knew you know you even then not probably just they learn that from your campaign you can't do that you put up that lets you perform when you're just down the next day even the thing is they use places farmers and others concerned is this the ballot for him in

that is a bit at the top of the polls with the condoms people would live in the israeli people of my roommate this is the bit we were often here in a gap in the need to get the money to campaign to do things signs are all signed up i think this is very good yet wellpoint their son you're the one that i would you know i'm not someone work about three post workout the scotland set and when they do it when you are new letter writer while every word

that means they need to get out and shake according to available research the american voter for the most part is not interested in issues stubbornly loyal to old image as a man who really changes is voting habits a small fraction of the electorate of course is also wise judicious objective independent ways the issues and the candidates and only then decides moscow is consciously or unconsciously arrive at a decision as to who they will support before the campaign gets underway some wait till the last minute fiddle anything political aside from forty one the professional politician looks at such an electorate you can divide it into any number of categories really can never be assured a victory unless by campaigning he gets out the vote activate his supporters and that tracks the relatively few who were still undecided but who may swing a close election in nineteen sixty eight republicans and democrats spent one hundred and sixty five million dollars is your votes a

priceless but in nineteen sixty this workout to approximately twenty four thousand dollars to dollars a vote and a large share of that money was raised through the two politicians next week people in politics the politics is a team of people and we're going to be the conditions fb is because

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