SYMBOLISM, POLITICS AND VOTING BEHAVIOR

All three of the people I interviewed said that television news does not influence them that much. I believe that this would be true of any committed member of a political party, since these are people who have taken a stand on issues they believe are important, and they have put some thought into what they believe. It's entirely likely that the people who are most influenced by television news are the 49 percent who didn't vote in this year's election, and maybe the ones who don't indicate a strong party preference.

I found it interesting that all three of the people I interviewed had in common the fact that they had a strong set of core beliefs, which definitely colored the way they looked at the world, and that they felt they were acting in their perceived self interest to vote the way they did. In each case, this led them to take diametrically-opposed positions, but they all went through a similar process to get there.

As far as symbols are concerned, the Republican voter, Mrs. Blake, seemed to be the one who was most influenced by the buzz words of her particular group. I would definitely define her as a member or what is known as The Christian Right, though I did not specifically ask her that question. She used a lot of the buzz words of that group, i.e., "return to traditional values," "killing the pre-born," etc. I was actually surprised when I questioned her about supporting women Republicans runnin

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ent of the votes on the national campaign. Nader did not win enough votes to qualify the Green Party for federal matching funds in 2004, but he did win enough votes to deny the Presidency to Al Gore, just from the votes the Green Party won in Florida. The Democratic Party is going to have to mend fences with the people who supported Ralph Nader, and they are going to have to do this with more than mere rhetoric, if they want to secure their base firmly enough to compete successfully against the Republicans in the next elections. There are going to be even more people by then who are thinking with their pocket book like Mr. Carlyle does. In the meantime, the Christian Right who voted as they did for George Bush are going to want to see some progress on issues that are important to them if Bush and the Republican Party are to maintain their support in future elections. These people are true believers, and there are now some prominent members of the Christian Right who are advising the membership that it is impossible to get anywhere politically without compromising their principles, and are advocating that the Christian Right withdraw from the political field and concentrate on building and strengthening their community. Thes
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Approximate Word count = 3731
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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