DOCSLIB.ORG

UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Tea Party Fairness: How the Idea of Proportional Justice Explains the Right-Wing Populism of the Obama Era Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3663x343 Author Ekins, Emily Elisabeth Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Tea Party Fairness: How the Idea of Proportional Justice Explains the Right-Wing Populism of the Obama Era A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science by Emily Elisabeth Ekins 2015 ©Copyright by Emily Elisabeth Ekins 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Tea Party Fairness: How the Idea of Proportional Justice Explains the Right-Wing Populism of the Obama Era by Emily Elisabeth Ekins Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor John Zaller, Chair In this dissertation I argue that the main impulse underlying the tea party movement is a conviction that activist government helps the undeserving at the expense of the truly productive members of society. I say main impulse because racial resentment and other illiberal attitudes also contribute to tea party involvement. But illiberal motives do not play the dominant role that much existing research suggests. When tests are properly conducted, preference for limited government is the strongest and most consistent predictor of tea party support. Further, I show that the movement catalyzed as a protest against the “bailouts” of undeserving Wall Street banks, other financial institutions, and automakers in 2008, before it acquired the famous tea party moniker from journalist Rick Santelli in February 2009. With repeated fast-paced government interventions in response to the Great Recession and with ii increasing publicity of the tea party brand early in the administration of President Barack Obama, the movement grew into a heterogeneous coalition, consisting of three distinct groups. I find the largest of these subgroups has a strongly libertarian flavor and scarcely a whiff of racial animus. Social conservatives comprise another significant group, with strong preferences for limited government and moral traditionalism, and some racially conservative attitudes. Racial conservatives are a substantial subgroup too, but my analysis shows that they are no less motivated by the issue of limited government than others in the movement. These groups are different from one another but came together in the same movement largely because they shared a belief that the federal government had violated basic fairness in its response to difficult economic times. I go on to argue that tea partiers’ preference for limited government is itself primarily driven by a “reap what you sow” conception of economic justice, rather than, as much tea party rhetoric proclaims, a desire for individual liberty. In the psychological literature on fairness, this conception is called “proportional justice”—the idea that everyone should be rewarded in strict proportion to their achievements and failings, and that government should not shield people from the consequences of their decisions. In sum, I contend the tea party impulse is at its core a demand for what its members see as basic economic fairness. iii The dissertation of Emily Elisabeth Ekins is approved. Kathleen Bawn Jonathan Haidt Lynn Vavreck Lewis John Zaller, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2015 iv To Justin and my parents v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables .............................................................................................................vii List of Figures ............................................................................................................ix Abbreviations .............................................................................................................xi Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................xii Vita .............................................................................................................................xv Preface ........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: What the Tea Party is, What it Wants, and Why it Matters .....................5 Chapter 2: In the Beginning, There Was TARP ........................................................30 Chapter 3: The Tea Party Coalition: Some Racial Resentment, Lots of Economic Resentment .............................78 Chapter 4: The Tea Party In Its Own Words .............................................................114 Chapter 5: The Tea Party Divide: Quantifying the Activists .....................................168 Chapter 6: Deconstructing Fiscal Conservatism: Proportionality, Liberty, Individualism, and Race .........................................200 Concluding Thoughts .................................................................................................250 Appendices .................................................................................................................258 Bibliography ..............................................................................................................276 vi LIST OF TABLES 2.1 TARP-Related Votes Predicting Republican Congressperson’s Leaving the House by 2010 ...............................................................42 2.2 TARP-Related Votes Predicting Democratic Congressperson’s Leaving the House by 2010 ...............................................................42 2.3 Knowledge About TARP: By Tea Party Support ....................................44 2.4 TARP Related Votes Predicting Joining Tea Party Congressional Caucus .......................................................45 2.5 Predicting Opposition to TARP: Regressions on Measures of Racial Resentment and Preference For Limited Government ...................................................................50 3.1 Beliefs about Entitlements and Entitlement Reform by Tea Party Support .........................................................................84 3.2 Predicting Tea Party Support: Regressions on Measures of Preferences for Limited Government, Racial Attitudes, and Immigration Anxiety (CBS/NYT) ..................91 3.3 Predicting Tea Party Support: Regressions on Measures of Preference for Limited Government, Racial Attitudes, and Immigration Anxiety (ANES EGSS 2) ...........96 3.4 Predicting Tea Party Subgroups: Regressions on Measures of Preference for Limited Government and Racial Attitudes (CBS/NYT) ......................................................100 3.5 Tea Party Clusters: Demographics, Political Identification Tea Party Engagement (CBS/NYT) ...................................................104 3.6 Political Beliefs Across Tea Party Clusters and Non-Tea Party Groups (CBS/NYT) ...................................................106 3.7 Predicting Tea Party Cluster Membership: Regressions on Measures of Limited Govt Preferences and Racial Attitudes (CBS/NYT) ......................................................111 4.1 Shares of Tea Party Protest Signs by Category at the 9/12 2010 Tea Party March on Washington D.C. ....................120 vii 5.1 Tea Party Activist Demographics ............................................................182 5.2 Tea Party Activists’ Ranked Issue Concerns ...........................................187 5.3 Top Ranked Issue Concerns of Activist Tea Party Clusters ....................195 5.4 Predicting Tea Party Cluster Membership Among DC Activists: Regressions on Economic, Social, and Foreign Policy Issue Concern Indices ................................................197 6.1 Endorsement of Items Measuring Moral Foundations Tea Party Supporters and Non-Supporters ........................................211 6.2 Mean Endorsement of Moral Foundations Among Tea Party Social Conservatives And Tea Party Libertarians ................................................................217 6.3 Comparison of MFQ Cluster 1: Tea Party Social Conservatives and MFQ Cluster 2: Tea Party Libertarians (Clustering Method 2) ........................................................................221 6.4 Predicting Tea Party Support, Tea Party Who Desire Small Govt, and Tea Party Who Desire Active Govt: Regressions on Moral Foundations ....................................................227 6.5 Endorsements of Proportionality and Economic Individualism: Comparison of Tea Party Supporters and Non-Supporters ................233 6.6 Factor Loadings of Proportionality and Standard Individualism Items ............................................................236 6.7 Predicting Support for Limited Government: Regressions on Measures of Proportionality and Individualism .......238 6.8 Predicting Tea Party Support: Regressions on Measures of Principled Conservatism and Racial Attitudes ...........................................................................242 6.9a Predicting Tea Party Support for Limited Government: Regressions on Measures of Principled Conservatism And Racial Attitudes ..........................................................................245 6.9b Predicting Tea Party Support for Active Government: Regressions on Measures of Principled Conservatism and Racial Attitudes ...........................................................................246
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Pontifícia Universidade Católica De Goiás Escola De Direito E Relações Internacionais Curso De Relações Internacionais
    PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DE GOIÁS ESCOLA DE DIREITO E RELAÇÕES INTERNACIONAIS CURSO DE RELAÇÕES INTERNACIONAIS BRUNA ALVES MARTINS ALMEIDA A CONSTRUÇÃO HISTÓRICA DO POPULISMO NACIONALISTA ESTADUNIDENSE E O PAPEL DAS REDES SOCIAIS NA CAMPANHA DE DONALD TRUMP À PRESIDÊNCIA GOIÂNIA 2020 BRUNA ALVES MARTINS ALMEIDA A CONSTRUÇÃO HISTÓRICA DO POPULISMO NACIONALISTA ESTADUNIDENSE E O PAPEL DAS REDES SOCIAIS NA CAMPANHA DE DONALD TRUMP À PRESIDÊNCIA Trabalho de conclusão de curso de graduação apresentado à Escola de Direito e Relações Internacionais da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás, como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Bacharel em Relações Internacionais. Orientador: Prof. Me. Renzo Nery GOIÂNIA 2020 Almeida, Bruna Alves Martins. A447 A construção histórica do populismo nacionalista estadunidense e o papel das redes sociais na campanha de Donald Trump à presidência / Bruna Alves Martins Almeida - 2020. 69 p. Orientador: Prof. Me. Renzo Nery Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (graduação) - Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás, Escola de Direito e Relações Internacionais, 2020. 1. Populismo nacionalista estadunidense 3. Extrema direita 4. Donald Trump 5 mídias sociais. I. Nery, Renzo. II. Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás. Graduação em Relações Internacionais. III. Título. FOLHA DE APROVAÇÃO BRUNA ALVES MARTINS ALMEIDA A CONSTRUÇÃO HISTÓRICA DO POPULISMO NACIONALISTA ESTADUNIDENSE E O PAPEL DAS REDES SOCIAIS NA CAMPANHA DE DONALD TRUMP À PRESIDÊNCIA Trabalho de conclusão de curso de graduação apresentado à Escola de Direito e Relações Internacionais da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás, como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Bacharel em Relações Internacionais. Orientador: Prof. Me. Renzo Nery Aprovada em _____ de ___________________ de ________.
    [Show full text]
  • Three Essays on the Material Enactment of Social Movements Through Social Media
    THREE ESSAYS ON THE MATERIAL ENACTMENT OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PHD IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION and for the degree of DOCTEUR EN SCIENCES DE GESTION DE L’ECOLE DOCTORALE « ÉCONOMIE, MANAGEMENT, MATHÉMATIQUES, PHYSIQUE ET SCIENCES INFORMATIQUES » ED 405 UNIVERSITE PARIS-SEINE Presented and defended publicly the 17th of January 2019 by Seyed Reza MOUSAVI BAYGI JURY David AVISON Co-supervisor Professor Emeritus, ESSEC Business School (Cergy, France) Marie-Laure DJELIC Co-supervisor Professor, Sciences Po (Paris, France) Julien MALAURENT Co-supervisor Associate Professor, ESSEC Business School (Cergy, France) Marleen HUYSMAN Referee Professor, VU University (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Lucas INTRONA Referee Professor, Lancaster University (Lancaster, UK) Dominique CARDON Chair Associate Professor, Sciences Po (Paris, France) Aurélie LECLERCQ- Examiner Professor, IESEG School of Management (Lille, VANDELANNOITTE France) Résumé En accord avec l’intérêt récent porté aux mouvements sociaux dans la théorie des organisations et la littérature des systèmes d’information et face à la numérisation croissante des sociétés, j’adopte dans cette thèse de doctorat une perspective performative et post- humaniste pour étudier la matérialisation des mouvements sociaux avec, à travers et par les médias sociaux. En faisant cela, je vais au-delà des arguments communément entendus sur la question de savoir si les médias sociaux et leurs diverses fonctionnalités aident ou entravent la mobilisation et l'action collective, pour la simple raison que les médias sociaux défient des caractérisations aussi faciles que des relations de cause à effet. Tout comme les mouvements sociaux, les médias sociaux ont des frontières poreuses et des propriétés malléables.
    [Show full text]
  • Layout 1 4/1/10 3:28 PM Page 40
    VOL.4 ISSUE 2 $2.95 see pg. 9 for story In this Issue: An American Uprising # U.S. # 1 Domestic Threat Heaven on Earth No mattermatter wwhathat thethe littlelittle thingstthings in youryour lifelife may be,be, youyou oweowe itit toto yourselfyourself to see howhow HumanaHumana can helphelp safeguardsafeeguard youryour health.health. HumanaHumana hashas beenbeen servingserving peoplepeople just llikeike youyou withwith MedicareMedicare forfor overover 20 years,years,, and currentlycurrentlyy providesprovides coveragecoveragge to moremore thanthan 4.34.3 millionmillion peoplepeople withwith MedicareMedicare acrossacross thethe countrcountry. CallCall us todtoday to learnlearn moremore aboutabout our MedicareMedicare AdvantageAdvantage plans.plans. Call:Call: 1-1 866-836-1716866-836-1716 TTY 1-1-877-833-4486877-833-44886 8 a.m.a.m. toto 8 p.m.,p.m.,, 7 day s a weekweek –Medicare –Group Health –Individual health –Dental, Life, VisionVision Medicare aapprovedpproved HMO,HMO, PPO, and PFFS plans available to anyone enrolledl in both Parat A and Part B of Mediic are through age or dis a bility. Enrollm ent period restrictions aapplpply, call Humana for details. M0006_GHA02XYRRM0006_GHA02XYRR fer d We have had the Sleep Number bed for a few years now and can say it is the very best investment we have ever made. Back pain was a fact of life for me for years. “ After sleeping on the Sleep Number bed, I have improved signifi cantly. It is amazing Bonus Of to go to bed in pain and wake up refreshed and pain free. Janet D., Mt. Vernon,” WA $50 Savings Car Sleep Better On Air® Are You Frustrated by the The Sleep Number® Bed Quality of Your Sleep? Makes Innersprings Obsolete Do you toss and turn at night? A traditional innerspring mattress offers only Can’t seem to fi nd a comfortable hard metal coils for support.
    [Show full text]
  • Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy Digital Divas: Women, Politics and the Social Network
    Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy Discussion Paper Series #D-63, June 2011 Digital Divas: Women, Politics and the Social Network by Alexis Gelber Shorenstein Center Goldsmith Fellow, Spring 2011 Formerly, Newsweek magazine © 2011 President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Introduction∗ In the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama emerged as the champion of new media by using social networking tools in innovative ways to turn on and turn out young voters. Since then, some of most visible and creative users of social media in the political realm have been women: • After humiliation and defeat in 2008, Sarah Palin resurfaces as a powerful force in the Republican Party through Facebook and Twitter. • Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill is featured in Time magazine’s 2009 “Top 10 Celebrity Twitter Feeds” for her microblogs about her family, her diet and CEO bank pay that she writes herself (as she noted in a tweet).1 • Hillary Clinton digitizes diplomacy as Secretary of State after a lackluster new media campaign in her run for the presidency; Huffington Post calls her “Obama’s Unsung Tech Guru.”2 • Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota propels herself into a role as Congressional Tea Party Caucus leader and presidential contender, streaming video on her Facebook page and creating an iPhone app for supporters.3 • Tea Party organizers—many of them stay-at-home mothers with young children—use Twitter and other social networking platforms to connect conservative activists in a movement that upends the 2010 midterm elections. In addition, surveys indicate that women outnumber men on social networking sites.
    [Show full text]
  • Tea Party Nationalism: a Critical Examination of the Tea Party Movement and the Size, Scope, and Focus of Its National Factions
    Tea Party Nationalism: A Critical Examination of the Tea Party Movement and the Size, Scope, and Focus of Its National Factions By Devin Burghart and Leonard Zeskind Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights. The Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights is responsible for the content and analysis of this report. Additional materials, including updates and exclusive web content can be found at teapartynationalism.com. Copyright © 2010 Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights. All Rights Reserved. No Part of this report may be reproduced without the permission of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights except for sections quoted with proper attribution for purposes of reviews and public education. The Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights (IREHR) is a national organization with an international outlook examining racist, anti-Semitic, white nationalist, and far-right social movements, analyzing their intersection with civil society and social policy, educating the public, and assisting in the protection and extension of human rights through organization and informed mobilization. Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights P.O. Box 411552 Kansas City, MO 64141 voice: (816) 474-4748 email: [email protected] website: www.irehr.org Contents Foreword .................................................................................................................................5 Introduction ............................................................................................................................7
    [Show full text]
  • Groups, Parties, and Nominating Challenges in Contemporary Politics
    1 Wesleyan University The Honors College Primary Concerns: Groups, Parties, and Nominating Challenges in Contemporary Politics by Gabriel Borelli Class of 2016 A thesis submitted to the faculty of Wesleyan University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors from the College of Social Studies Middletown, Connecticut April, 2016 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgments.............................................................................. 3 Introduction………………………………………………………… 4 Chapter 1: Polarization, Primaries, and Interest Groups………. 9 Chapter 2: Primaries and Extremes……………………………… 37 Chapter 3: Join the Club………………………………………...... 76 Conclusions………………………………………………………… 123 Bibliography……………………………………………………….. 131 3 Acknowledgements Writing this thesis has been one of the most fun but also most rigorous, intellectually challenging experiences of my entire life. While so many mentors, friends, and family members have been there to support me throughout this academic endeavor, there are several people in particular who I would like to thank that, without whom, writing this thesis would not have been possible. First and foremost, Professor Sam Rosenfeld, my thesis advisor and academic mentor— I truly could not thank you enough for all the insight and support that you have provided me this past year. You took me under your wing in September as I nervously sought an advisor willing to work with me and help to both winnow down my topic and shape it into something workable for my senior writing project. Your comments and feedback in our Thursday meetings have challenged me to be a better writer and analyst, and there is absolutely no way that I would have made it to the point that I am at today without your support this year.
    [Show full text]
  • Tea Party Fairness: How the Idea of Proportional Justice Explains the Right-Wing Populism of the Obama Era
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Tea Party Fairness: How the Idea of Proportional Justice Explains the Right-Wing Populism of the Obama Era A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science by Emily Elisabeth Ekins 2015 ©Copyright by Emily Elisabeth Ekins 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Tea Party Fairness: How the Idea of Proportional Justice Explains the Right-Wing Populism of the Obama Era by Emily Elisabeth Ekins Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor John Zaller, Chair In this dissertation I argue that the main impulse underlying the tea party movement is a conviction that activist government helps the undeserving at the expense of the truly productive members of society. I say main impulse because racial resentment and other illiberal attitudes also contribute to tea party involvement. But illiberal motives do not play the dominant role that much existing research suggests. When tests are properly conducted, preference for limited government is the strongest and most consistent predictor of tea party support. Further, I show that the movement catalyzed as a protest against the “bailouts” of undeserving Wall Street banks, other financial institutions, and automakers in 2008, before it acquired the famous tea party moniker from journalist Rick Santelli in February 2009. With repeated fast-paced government interventions in response to the Great Recession and with ii increasing publicity of the tea party brand early in the administration of President Barack Obama, the movement grew into a heterogeneous coalition, consisting of three distinct groups.
    [Show full text]
  • An Exploration of the Origins, Composition, and Influence of the Tea Party Bryce Don Summary University of Missouri-St
    University of Missouri, St. Louis IRL @ UMSL Dissertations UMSL Graduate Works 8-2-2013 Reading the Tea Leaves: An Exploration of the Origins, Composition, and Influence of the Tea Party Bryce Don Summary University of Missouri-St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://irl.umsl.edu/dissertation Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Summary, Bryce Don, "Reading the Tea Leaves: An Exploration of the Origins, Composition, and Influence of the Tea Party" (2013). Dissertations. 298. https://irl.umsl.edu/dissertation/298 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the UMSL Graduate Works at IRL @ UMSL. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of IRL @ UMSL. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Reading the Tea Leaves: An Exploration of the Origins, Composition, and Influence of the Tea Party by Bryce Don Summary M.A., Political Science, University of Missouri - St. Louis, 2010 B.A., Political Science, Eastern Illinois University, 2004 A Dissertation Submitted to The Graduate School at the University of Missouri–St. Louis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science July 2013 Advisory Committee David Kimball, Ph.D. Chair E. Terrence Jones, Ph.D. David Robertson, Ph.D. Nancy Kinney, Ph.D. Acknowledgements This dissertation could not have been completed without the assistance from a variety of different sources. I would like to thank the College of Arts of Sciences for the dissertation research award that I received in 2011-2012. I would also like to thank the Department of Political Science at the University of Missouri-St.
    [Show full text]
  • Straus Speaks Freshmen Legislators WE KNOW COUNTIES Beating Diabetes a Message to County a Brief Introduction | Pg
    Jan./Feb. 2015 Vol. 27, No. 1 CountyA Publication of the Texas Association of Counties county.org/magazine HITTING THE ROAD HIGHLIGHTS FROM A TWO-WEEK TEXAS ROAD TRIP ADVENTURE | PG. 46 Straus Speaks Freshmen Legislators WE KNOW COUNTIES Beating Diabetes A message to county A brief introduction | pg. 54 Meet TAC’s Risk Management A healthy spotlight | pg. 10 officials | pg. 16 Consultants | pg. 36 10337_TAC.indd 1 1/19/15 12:20 PM TAC_county_news_fullpg_cmyk_tylertech_120413.pdf 1 12/4/13 10:34 AM Public Access Cloud-Based Solutions Mobile Computing Wherever you’re headed, Tyler is there Texas Association of Counties Mission Statement The mission of the Texas Association of Counties is to unite counties to achieve better solutions. County, a bimonthly magazine, is distributed to every elected county official and county auditor in Texas’ 254 counties. Other readers include purchasing agents, budget and planning administrators, appointed department heads, state legislators and state agency personnel. Wherever public sector offices are working to serve the public, Tyler is there. We make Reproduction of this magazine in whole or in part, is permissible only upon express written it our mission to improve the way local government and schools take care of business, authorization from the publisher and when proper credit, including copyright acknowledgment, is given to Texas Association of Counties’ County Magazine. by increasing efficiency, improving information sharing, and making their jobs easier. ©2000, Texas Association of Counties. Published by the Texas Association of Counties, P.O. Box 2131, Austin, Texas 78768-2131. Telephone: (512) 478-8753, Facsimile: (512) 478-0519.
    [Show full text]
  • “Gang of 10”: on Behalf of the Undersigned Organizations
    August 19, 2008 Dear “Gang of 10”: On behalf of the undersigned organizations representing hundreds of thousands of taxpayers, small businesses, shareholders, consumers and senior citizens, we strongly urge you and your colleagues to consider the below concerns and redraft the bipartisan Senate energy plan to prevent further harm to the U.S. economy and its citizens. We commend the Senate’s attempts to find a bipartisan solution to Americans energy needs. Further, we are pleased with the removal of anti-“speculation” measures which save the marketplace from unwarranted government intervention and show confidence and support for the American investor. However, the current state of the proposal contains several potentially fatal flaws. The most glaring of which is the lack of certainty that the current proposed measures will not raise taxes on the American people. Sound energy policy should contain fiscally responsible measures that will actually result in lower prices – not penalties to the taxpayer. Why allow room for a tax increase when Americans are already paying so much at the pump? Additionally, in a time when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has expressed willingness to allow a vote on Outer Continental Shelf drilling, your proposal only permits four states to opt-in to oil leasing off their shores – retaining all regulatory powers at the federal level. It is not the job of the federal government to regulate the leasing of state waters and control when, where and how energy exploration can occur. The bill, by barring any drilling within 50 miles of the coast leaves much of the most productive OCS areas off limits.
    [Show full text]
  • Washington Political Watch
    Mike Berman's WASHINGTON POLITICAL WATCH No. 89 December 22, 2009 STATE OF THE NATION TV viewing habits and politics - - - - - Pessimism abounds * * * * * PRESIDENT OBAMA Job approval continues to slide * * * * * HEALTHCARE Action in the U.S. Senate almost 35 years ago made passage of the healthcare bill possible * * * * * THE CONGRESS Public not happy with congressional performance - - - - - Mid-term elections rest on President's shoulders * * * * * RESTAURANTS * * * * * In December 2008 local television news was the preferred daily source of news for 51% of Americans. Close behind, each with a 40% daily following, were local newspapers and cable news networks. The nightly network news programs followed with a 34% daily following, and the internet with a 31% score. The two categories that were growing were cable networks and the internet. [Gallup] 36% of Americans say they are following national politics very closely. This is the largest number in a non-Presidential election year since Gallup began tracking this question in 2001. [Gallup 9/09] 1 In 1999 55% of Americans said they had at least a fair amount of trust and confidence in the mass media, while 44% said they had not much or no confidence at all. By 2009 Americans had reversed their positions, with 55% saying they had not much or no confidence in the mass media and 45% expressing the contrary view. [Gallup] This December the NBC/WSJ asked respondents from which of the following national TV news sources they get most of their information about politics and current events. Respondents said: Broadcast networks such as ABC, CBS or NBC 36% Fox News cable channel 27% CNN cable channel 16% Other national TV news sources 7% MSNBC cable channel 5% Where folks get most of their information does seem to affect their views (or perhaps they select news channels that they know reflect their views).
    [Show full text]
  • The Tea Party Movement, the Redefinition of the Digital Political Mediascape, and the Birth of Online Politicking 3.0
    The perfect political storm? The Tea Party movement, the redefinition of the digital political mediascape, and the birth of online politicking 3.0 by Vincent Raynauld A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy degree in Communication Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2013, Vincent Raynauld i Abstract This doctoral dissertation examines the growing impact of the two converging dynamics that are responsible for the reconfiguration of the online and, to some extent, real-world political communication, mobilization and organizing dynamic in the United States in recent years. These two converging dynamics, which constitute the core of the online politicking 3.0 model, are the grassroots-intensive uncontrolled decentralization and hyper-fragmentation of digital politicking. It is argued in this dissertation that the Tea Party movement is one of the first large scale manifestations of online politicking 3.0 in the United States. In order to illustrate this point, this dissertation offers an extensive quantitative content analysis of slightly more than 1.7 million tweets with at least one #teaparty hashtag that were posted on Twitter’s public timeline between December 9, 2009 and March 19, 2011, a time period roughly coinciding with the 2010 Midterm U.S. election cycle. A heuristic review of some facets of #teaparty tweets is also conducted in order to contextualize some of the quantitative data. This dissertation concludes that the the communication, organizing and organizing impact of the Tea Party is likely to be felt in the future. It is expected to have deep transformational effects on the structure of the political mediascape and, to a broader extent, on participatory engagement patterns in the United States and many other national contexts over the next decade.
    [Show full text]