Critical Thinking Resource - Political Science - Dow Jones
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Critical
Thinking
Resource
Political Science
© 2020 Dow Jones & Co. Inc. All rights reserved.About The Wall Street Journal’s
Critical Thinking Resource
We developed this guide to help you maximize The Wall Street Journal as a resource for
your classes. You’ll be able to energize discussions and engage students with tangible
examples of course concepts that your students can apply in the real world. In addition,
with the help of faculty partners, we’ve curated a special collection of our most popular
and thought-provoking articles across business. For each of these readings, we provide a
summary, correlation to course topics, classroom applications and questions suitable for
launching discussions and conducting assessments.
Here are some of the many ways to incorporate WSJ into your courses:
• Course Readings: Assign articles as required reading alongside your textbook sections.
For best results, include assessment questions on quizzes and exams.
• Discussion Launchers: Use articles to spur classroom and threaded discussions in
online and hybrid courses on core concepts and current events.
• Extra Credit: Allow students to read optional articles and answer assessment
questions for extra credit.
• Group Projects: WSJ is a rich source of real-world topics for group research and
presentation projects.
• Research Papers and Case Studies: WSJ features provide timely citations for
research projects.
Theme: 2020 United States presidential election
Table of Contents
1. Trump, Democrats Gird for Fierce 2020 Fight in Arizona
2. Democratic Candidates Sanders and Biden Report Jump in Fundraising
3. TikTok Wants to Stay Politics-Free. That Could Be Tough in 2020.Trump, Democrats Gird for Fierce 2020 Fight in Arizona Reporter: Chad Day and Eliza Collins Reviewed By: Ed Miller, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Date: 1/02/20 Topics: Election, Presidential, Republican, Democratic, Political Party, Arizona Link to Article: Click Here Summary: Arizona, a state which had not voted for a Democratic candidate for president since 1948, is being considered a party competitive state for 2020. Though President Donald Trump won the state in 2016, Democrats did well in the 2018 midterm election, including capturing a U.S. Senate seat. Especially heartening to Democrats is the significant increase in suburban and exurban populations, who have tended to vote for Democrats. Trump’s handling of health policy and Democrats’ position on the economy are seen as key issues benefiting Democratic Party candidates this year. Further advantaging Democrats are the growth of the Latino population and the organizing effort of the hospitality workers’ union. However, Republican officials view the 2018 election results as an anomaly, arguing that Republicans will again be victorious in the state with Trump, who can turn out Republican voters, on the ballot. Classroom Application: Chad Day and Eliza Collins’ article, examining the Democratic Party’s success in the 2018 midterm election in the traditional Republican state of Arizona, provides a background to assess partisan change in states. Factors key to the 1932 realignment and the transformation of the southern states from solidly Democratic to Republican dominated can be discussed. In both of these cases, the influence of the parties’ presidential candidates can be analyzed. Clearly Franklin Roosevelt and Barry Goldwater were factors. With the emergence of President Donald Trump’s base as dominant in the Republican Party, students can analyze demographic shifts currently occurring in the parties. Especially notable is the moving of the white working class voter, not having a four-year college degree, into the Republican column. This has been especially true of men. Students can assess, based upon polling data including The Wall Street Journal/NBC News polls, whether non-college graduated white women are now deserting Trump. The class can also analyze the shift in the Latino vote, which at one time was split between party candidates, into becoming a significant element in Democratic Party support. This change can be applied to forecasts of party competition in several southern states. Continued on next page.
cont.
Questions:
1. After the loss in the presidential election by now Senator Mitt Romney, the Republican
Party commissioned a report known as the “autopsy.” What were the main conclusions of
the report? How could its finding affect President Trump’s bid for re-election?
2. Contrast forces in Arizona that seem to benefit Democratic Party candidates with those
benefiting Republican Party candidates.
3. Why has the importance of unions, such as hospitality workers local in Arizona, become
less important to Democratic Party presidential candidates in recent years in contrast to
earlier periods?
4. What policies have Republicans pushed in many states that have blunted the electoral
impact of the increase in African-American and Latino voters? How has a Supreme Court
decision facilitated this?
5. Both Democrats and Republicans are spending large amounts in Arizona. What does
money buy that is intended to improve each party’s prospects?
6. All but two states award their electoral vote in block to the presidential candidate winning
a plurality of the vote. Would Arizona benefit by splitting their electoral vote on the basis of
which candidate won each congressional district?
7. Senator Kyrsten Sinema won a Senate seat from Arizona in the 2018 election, becoming
the first Democrat to do so in 30 years. What advantages will she have if she seeks
reelection in 2024 over 2018? How will the political environment be different?
8. Arizona Republicans argue that they will do better in 2020 because President Trump will
be on the ballot, which will increase Republican turnout. However, shouldn’t Republicans
have been more advantaged in turnout in 2018, a midterm election?
Related Article:
Demographic Shift Poised to Test Trump’s 2020 Strategy
Aaron Zitner and Dante Chinni
01/04/2020Democratic Candidates Sanders and Biden Report Jump in Fundraising Reporter: Julie Bykowicz Reviewed By: Ed Miller, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Date: 1/03/20 Topics: Election, Presidential, Money, Contributions Link to Article: Click Here Summary: Fourth quarter reporting shows that among the Democratic Party candidates for president, Senator Bernie Sanders raised the most, $34.5 million. Following Sanders is former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg, who brought in $24.7 million in the final three months of 2019 followed by Joe Biden at $22.7 million. Senator Elizabeth Warren was just slightly behind the former vice president at $21.2 million, a slight dip from previous quarters. Andrew Yang saw an increase, raising $16.5 million. Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, billionaires, are mostly bankrolling their campaigns themselves. Sanders and Warren are not seeking donors who can give the maximum of $2,800 but rather small donations made online. Each of the Democratic candidates trail President Donald Trump in fundraising as the Trump campaign raised $46 million in the last quarter [not including funds raised by the Republican National Committee], giving him a $103 million in total to use against his Democratic opponent, similar to the amount on hand for former President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign. However, the strength of Democratic Party opposition to the president is illustrated by the combined total of Democratic candidates being double the amount bought in for the Republican incumbent. Classroom Application: Julie Bykowicz’s article, reporting on the fourth quarter funding raising submissions, can form the core of a discussion of money and elections. Concern about money in presidential elections led to the creation of a public fund, derived from voluntary contribution on tax returns, to avoid huge expenditures and influence of large donors. Agreeing to participate in public funding is the only way of limiting campaign expenditures, given the Supreme Court’s decision in Buckley v. Valeo, equating campaign spending with free speech. However, because of the limits accepting public funding would trigger, presidential candidates in recent years have not participated. The class can discuss benefits to candidates of raising substantial amounts of money. Significant war chests allow candidates to buy media spots, fund social media activities, hire staff, open offices, demonstrate the seriousness of the candidacy even with low poll numbers, pay for transportation, and allow candidates to devote more time to events and less time to raising money. Failure to raise sufficient funds has already caused several candidates to withdraw, the latest being Julián Castro, former Secretary of House and Urban Development. Still 14 Democratic candidates remain, many Continued on next page.
cont.
of whom have raised significant sums despite their single digit poll numbers. Students can offer
reasons that the field will narrow as the primary season advances. Failure to obtain significant
support in the early states typically results in a falloff of donations, causing candidates to drop out.
This will not be the case for billionaire candidate Michael Bloomberg, who is concentrating on Super
Tuesday states and giving less effort in early contests, particularly the Iowa caucuses. Candidates
who run poorly in the early states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, often decide
to withdraw. The class can consider whether there should be a constitutional amendment to allow
more campaign funding restrictions.
Questions:
1. Why can’t Congress limit the total amount that a presidential campaign can spend?
2. Candidates are spending a significant amount of money in Iowa, a relatively small state
that lacks diversity and uses a caucus rather than a primary system. Why are they doing
this and not saving funds for states that have many more convention delegates?
3. Senator Bernie Sanders raised a huge sum of money in 2016 and is repeating it this year.
What do you believe is the draw of Sanders to contributors, especially younger voters?
4. Senators Sanders and Warren have vowed not to solicit large contributions but rely on
small donations. What is their rationale for this? Which candidates have been criticized in
the campaign for not doing this?
5. President Donald Trump’s campaign spent proportionately less on traditional media, e.g.
television, in 2016 than on social media. What rationale drove that decision?
6. For Congress, incumbents typically raise and spend more than their challengers. However,
some large spending incumbents lose. How can this be explained?
7. What are 501(c)(4) organizations and how does regulation of political contributions for
these organizations differ from that of candidate committees?
8. Campaign funds raised are used, among other items, to open offices in the states. What do
the staff of these offices do that are vital to a campaign?
Related Article:
Warren’s Fundraising Slipped to $21.2 Million in Fourth Quarter
Ken Thomas
01/04/2020TikTok Wants to Stay Politics-Free. That Could Be Tough in 2020 Reporter: Georgia Wells and Emily Glazer Reviewed By: Ed Miller, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Date: 1/06/20 Topics: Presidential, Election, Social, Media, TikTok Link to Article: Click Here Summary: In the 2016 presidential election several social media sites, especially Facebook and Twitter, were widely criticized for being platforms from which inaccurate information and material encouraging social conflict emanated. Some of the postings have been traced to Russian intelligence. For 2020 a new social media entry, TikTok, will take its place alongside the other sites. The company, owned by Chinese conglomerate Bytedance, Inc., banned political ads but posts political content by users, which the company says is free speech. Videos tagged #Trump2020 were viewed more than 200 million times in just the last three weeks of 2019. While videos tagged #Bernie2020 are popular, in the same three week period they were viewed 24 million times, a fraction of the viewings of the Trump video. Viewers of TikTok are young with 70% under 25. Forty- two percent are in the voting age bracket of 18–24. The ownership of TikTok by a Chinese firm is concerning for fear that China could access user data, which the company denies has occurred. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) suggested that campaign staffs not use the app but if they need to, download the app to a separate phone and account. President Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said that the Trump campaign will continue to get its message out through a variety of social media platforms. Classroom Application: While Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter are widely known, a smaller group is familiar with the new social media platform, TikTok, which has about 24 million users, with 70% being under 25. Georgia Wells and Emily Glazer write about campaigns targeting young voters through TikTok and the concern about it being a Chinese owned company. A large percentage of young people primarily obtain their news and information from social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, rather than traditional media of newspapers and TV news. A poll can be taken of the class to assess where these students turn to for news. Students can then discuss the reliability of their primary sources. Traditionally, news reports produced by television networks and major newspapers go through an editorial review checking for accuracy. Social media sites do not, and even national figures, especially President Donald Trump, retweet inaccurate reports. With the expansion of cable news networks, viewers watching FOX or MSNBC will Continued on next page.
cont.
get different perspectives on the news of the day. The class can examine the issues with social
media that arose from the 2016 election, especially Russia’s involvement as documented in the
Mueller Report. Students can debate the controversial issue of whether social media firms have
a responsibility to check where ads are coming from, whether bots are being used to expand
coverage, whether information being spread is inaccurate, and whether firms have a responsibility
and capacity to prevent hate speech from appearing. These issues are endemic to a debate over
the limits of free speech. Also concerning is the use of artificial intelligence to produce a “For You”
page on TikTok for viewers. Many firms are now doing this. Amazon, for example, will suggest
items related to purchases you have made. The problems with this can be discussed. Essentially by
viewing items listed on the “For You” page, the ideas expressed by the initial item will be reinforced,
including of course misinformation.
Questions:
1. What is Russia accused of doing though the use of social media in the 2016 election?
2. What has Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook will do to try to prevent the improper use of
their site that occurred in the 2016 presidential election?
3. With the tag #Trump2020 being used by more than 200 million times on the youth
oriented TikTok platform, one would get the impression that young voters tend to support
President Trump for re-election. Looking at polling data from 2016 and current polls, which
candidates are receiving the greatest support from younger voters?
4. Young voters are very important to candidates. However, young voters have the lowest
level of turnout in elections. What factors explain this?
5. What data do platforms, such as TikTok, acquire that have led the Department of Defense
to ban its use by the military?
6. Media can influence even those who have not directly viewed articles, tweets, or videos. It
is referred to as the “two-step” flow of information. Explain this.
7. In reading newspapers or seeing videos on social media platforms, the psychological
phenomena of “selective attention” and “selective perception” operate. What are they?
How do they apply to viewers of cable news?
8. In recent years “big data” has influenced marketing. What is big data, how is it related to
the use of social media and how can it be used to target voters to support a candidate?
Related Article:
Presidential Candidates Take to Social Media
Emily Glazer and Dylan Moriarty
12/19/2019© 2020 Dow Jones & Co. Inc. All rights reserved.
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