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And now, Part 2 of the memes my students made to show what they learned in Intro to American Politics at Columbia University (see yesterday for Part 1). Here are the memes for parties and political behavior, with credit attributed where authorized.
Katherine S. begins by noting that parties' role in democracy is often poorly understood in political media,
as is the potential for third party candidates to gain traction, per Hannah W.
One important flaw in the conventional wisdom is the idea that 40% of the electorate are truly independent, fact-guided voters, as opposed to simply being closet partisans that behave exactly like everyone else, as this student points out:
This student saw things the same way:
Indeed, as I argue in class, there might be more evidence for the existence of the Sasquatch than for a huge swath of swing voters deciding each election:
So you have to identify and mobilize voters on your side, but Katerina K. reminds us that you have to be smart about it.
One effective way to mobilize people is by shaming them into voting. Lowri T remembered that Ted Cruz has been quick to deploy findings from political science journals, including @chriswlarimer, @professorcostas, Green, Gerber, and others, leveraging shame to turn voters out:
And don't forget, these methods work in ALL races, not just those at the top.
Taking a deeper dive into behavior, it turns out we're all pretty partisan, and our party identification determines quite a lot about about how we think and what we do. It is, as Hannah W. notes, a helluva drug:
Hannah W. also points out that this has important implications for the potential of external forces changing our minds:
One issue here is faulty information. Ananya C. points to @SuzanneMettler1 's excellent work showing that many people don't understand the government benefits they receive:
But the issue is broader than just policy knowledge. Students learned that most people (including political science majors) overestimate the consistency of their own political ideology:
Indeed, as we explored John Zaller's foundational theory of public opinion, students realized that many of their thoughts were put there by party elites. Clare L noticed this:
Claire S. had a similar reaction:
Kate S. sums up the transformative nature of this realization:
Not all students made memes about course material. Some, like Noa F., noted some of my peculiarities, such as my apparent desire to not be confused with the petitioner in a landmark obscenity case,
or my request at Thanksgiving for students to sneak their dogs a little bit of turkey, and glee when they sent me pictures of their doing so.
Emma D. points out that I might have...SOME loyalties!
That's all folks! Hope you enjoyed our excellent students' work!
