Issue Ownership

When Americans think about politics, it is inevitable that we think of the Republican and Democratic parties as separates.  Furthermore, we think of each political party standing behind different issues that are held within our country and both Republicans and Democrats are known for "owning" certain prominent issues.  Democrats are know for dealing with issues about health care, education, and social policies, while Republicans are more involved with military action, national defense and crime issues. These issues have been known to increase issue knowledge if specifics, influence perceptions on candidates character, and alter attitudes of issues that parties own.  It is said that Democratic and Republican politicians who stand for opposing issues have almost a 90% losing rate in their party. 

There is also the issue of Battleground States when dealing with  Republican and Democratic differences.  In this election, there is said to be 15 states voting Democratic, 19 states voting Republican, and 17 states are toss-ups or battleground states.  11 of the battleground states have tended to go Republican in recent elections such as Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Altogether, these states have 114 electoral votes. The other 6 battleground states are more likely to go Democratic, which are Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Together, these states have only 76 electoral votes. 

What is really the issue of the outcome of the 2008 election, and any other election is electoral votes.  Electoral votes come from the Electoral College which is a set of electors who are empowered to elect a candidate to a particular office.  Each state then has a certain amount of electoral voters based on the size of their region.  The electoral votes make up the outcome of each election, so the battleground states relate to this issue because if the state votes Republican or Democratic, then the electoral voters must vote the way that their state's people voted.  

Discussion Questions:

1. Is there certain political issues that the media has linked in your knowledge with specific parties? If so, list some examples.
   
2. Do you think it's fair that young voters begin their political lives with these "stereotypes" of which party wins which issue?