Thread: political engagement

I have a question for US citizen: we had a lot of talks about presidential campaign lately in The Conversation - many of them quite heated -, and I am interested to know how many of you are really working for it, besides political choices: who is helping in party offices, tracts distribution, organizing meetings, giving speeches and so on and so forth.


I'd like to compare the situation in Europe with the one in your country... In Switzerland, we have usually less than 50% of the population voting (but we have to vote many more times than most of the countries in the world, for our representatives and new laws ... direct democracy obliged) and very few people are really helping candidates in their campaign.


Apparently, in the US you are facing some important issues that divide more - or at least it seems so from what I read on different forums and plurk lately - but does this situation imply that also more of you are involved in the campaign?

Originally Posted by Ockham

I have a question for US citizen: we had a lot of talks about presidential campaign lately in The Conversation - many of them quite heated -, and I am interested to know how many of you are really working for it, besides political choices: who is helping in party offices, tracts distribution, organizing meetings, giving speeches and so on and so forth.


I'd like to compare the situation in Europe with the one in your country... In Switzerland, we have usually less than 50% of the population voting (but we have to vote many more times than most of the countries in the world, for our representatives and new laws ... direct democracy obliged) and very few people are really helping candidates in their campaign.


Apparently, in the US you are facing some important issues that divide more - or at least it seems so from what I read on different forums and plurk lately - but does this situation imply that also more of you are involved in the campaign?

I was once quite active in politics on the state level, but then I took a job with the federal government. The Hatch Act provides that I'm forbidden to run for political office, raise money for political candidates, and make political statements (beyond personal conversations) at my place of employment. It's the raising money that's the rub -- I can make speeches (god forbid!), endorse candidates (who cares?), but as soon as they ask for money, which they always do, I'm out of bounds. So my political activity is at an end.

Both my sons, on the other hand, are working for candidates.

j

Well, I think it's probably due to the more developed "political market" in US. Things that should make only a marginal difference are so much blown out of proportion that they become the critical galvanizing components of a campaign. As much as everybody will love to convince you that they are making 'rational' choices I constantly find just the opposite is true.
I haven't lived very long in western europe, but my impression is that US has more of a volunteering culture, so combined with polarizing politics it does seem that there is a lot more involvement. My impression is that in US the political activity is highly peaked around elections while in Europe is a bit more evenly spread out, but that may be completely wrong.

Originally Posted by Nord Jim

It's the raising money that's the rub -- I can make speeches (god forbid!), endorse candidates (who cares?), but as soon as they ask for money, which they always do, I'm out of bounds. So my political activity is at an end.

He-he, I know that this will sound very cynical, but it would appear that the money is the only thing that actually matters as far as how elections turn out. (Or may be the money givers are just very smart and can smell the winner early on, so the money is just an expression, not a 'cause.)

And I'm not engaged in politics, neither do I want to be.

I was working for Ron Paul, but now.....

Who is Ron Paul?