Presidential Race Research Articles

When Donald Trump Dropped the Bass: The Weaponization of Dubstep in Internet Trolling Strategies, 2011–2016

Abstract This article argues that in the age of social media, the affective power of music can dare listeners to become complicit with misogyny and right-wing populism. It investigates the weaponization of dubstep in internet trolling strategies by examining the genre's relationship with a type of user-generated content called ‘Major League Gaming [MLG] Montage Parodies’. Mixing musical and audiovisual analysis with digital methods, the article considers the origins of MLG Montage Parodies and then investigates the content's development from 2011 to 2016. As a memetic timbral topic, the dubstep drop was initially deployed in MLG Montage Parodies as a form of pubescent power play to troll young male gamers. But then in 2014, it was redeployed as anti-feminist ammunition amid the toxic masculinity of #GamerGate. Finally, it was weaponized by alt-right trolls during the 2015–2016 ‘Great Meme War’ that accompanied the US Presidential Race. The closing remarks reflect on the ethical, ontological, and disciplinary implications of the research and issue a call for memetic musical literacy.

Evolution of the U.S. Republican Party’s Foreign Policy Platform and Its Implementation Challenges (2000–2004)

American politics is shaped by numerous variables that influence the development of both domestic and foreign policy. Among these, the formulation of party platforms plays a critical role in determining the policy direction of U.S. administrations. While it is often assumed that party platforms diverge from actual policy outcomes, recent research suggests otherwise in the U.S. context. Party platforms serve as official documents articulating a party’s ideological, political, and economic principles, including pre-election promises and foundational stances on various issues for the electoral cycle, typically spanning four years. This article examines the process of party platform formulation, focusing on the Republican Party's platform in 2000 and its subsequent implementation.During the 1990s, the Republican Party initiated a reformation of its platform following a series of electoral defeats in presidential races. This restructuring, led by figures such as George W. Bush and shaped by influential conservative think tanks, embraced a strategy known as "compassionate conservatism." However, the actual trajectory of U.S. administrations often diverges from the initial platform due to unforeseen circumstances. This phenomenon was particularly evident during the presidency of George W. Bush, where foreign policy experienced a significant shift towards neoconservative influences.The events of September 11, 2001, acted as a catalyst, fundamentally reshaping foreign policy objectives and altering public sentiment towards the Bush administration, as highlighted by sociological studies. These developments led to substantial changes in the nation's regional foreign policy priorities, reflecting the dynamic interplay between pre-election platforms and the realities of governance.

Kamala Harris: 'A New Sign of a Seismic Shift' in 2024 Presidential Race

July 21, 2024, will take its place in the political history of the United States: President J. Biden withdrew from the presidential race for a second term and proposed Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement on the list of candidates. The inevitability of changing the Democratic candidature in the midst of the campaign was driven by J. Biden’s evident fiasco in the "first" confrontation with a Republican rival, as well as his advanced age. The drama of the events reached its peak, and overnight, K. Harris gained a chance to become the leading contender for her party’s nomination. Academician G.A. Arbatov once wrote: "Politics is a resultant force that consists of many applied forces and factors" [12]. It was in this vein that the events of the 2024 presidential elections unfolded, where the intrigue of the winner remained until the very end.

Vote choice in the context of lethal police violence: A research note

Do police-caused deaths predict presidential vote choice in the US? This study explores the relationship between lethal police violence and vote choice in the 2020 presidential election using individual-level data from Harvard University's Cooperative Election Study (CES), which has been linked with aggregate-level data on police killings, civilian homicide rates, and socioeconomic, political, and public health characteristics. Consistent with the issue ownership theory of voting, this study finds that voters living in areas characterized by lethal police violence are significantly more likely to vote for the Democratic Party above and beyond their individual-level attributes and other contextual conditions. These findings and supplemental analyses raise critical questions concerning the political salience of fatal force in presidential races in the post-2020 era. Findings also support the need for further criminological inquiry into the effects of different forms of violence on American political behavior.

Sounding of the idols. Visual deception and religious images in Brazil

This article is a visual analysis of “deceptive religious imagery” employed by the campaign teams of Bolsonaro and Lula during the 2022 Brazilian presidential race with the aim of garnering votes through networked disinformation and covert influence operations. Employing a multimodal analytical approach, the research delves into the intricate interplay between politics and religion, particularly through the lens of online engagement with deceptive imagery. It tracks the dissemination of deceptive religious imagery across digital and physical platforms, melding visual analysis with rigorous fact-checking methodologies. This investigation is based on online and off-line ethnographic visual research. Not only this research let us reassess key concepts like ‘false image’, ‘verification’ or ‘visual myth’ but also allowed us to identify and debunk false imagery propagated online. Drawing upon Mitchell's framework of ‘iconology’, the article advocates for a critical examination of images, underscoring their tangible influence and the imperative to expose and evaluate their falseness in shaping public opinion. The research stresses the significance of understanding the actions and repercussions of religious visual disinformation in the context of the prevalence of post-truth cultures. In sum, this article contributes to our understanding of the intricate dynamics surrounding the utilisation of deceptive religious imagery in political campaigns, shedding light on the broader implications for democratic processes and the manipulation of public perception in contemporary socio-political contexts.

Metamorphosis of Turkey’s political landscape: unveiling the evolving party system in the aftermath of the presidential system shift and the 2023 elections

ABSTRACT The May 2023 elections in Turkey—comprising both parliamentary and presidential races—represented a pivotal moment in the country’s political history. These elections provided a crucial evaluation of the hyper-presidential system instituted after the 2017 constitutional transition. This article delves into the impact of the 2023 electoral outcomes on Turkey’s party system within the context of Turkey’s transition to a presidential system. It examines the ramifications of institutional changes, such as the introduction of winner-takes-all dynamics and alliance laws, on party system dynamics. Our findings indicate substantial transformations in key aspects of the party system, including increased polarization, heightened fragmentation, enhanced volatility, and intensified personalization. Through empirical analysis, showcasing the evolving dynamics of these challenges within the Turkish party system and their consequences for both the party system’s structure and the broader political regime, we offer insights into potential future trajectories for Turkey’s political landscape.

US global leadership beyond 2024: A UK and European perspective

European governments are following the course of the 2024 US presidential race more closely than any election in recent times. Although the outcome is hard to predict, many are particularly nervous about a second Trump administration, with good reason. European governments need to plan how to react to this prospect. The future of the Transatlantic Relationship could be at stake and Europe must try to get through a potentially very difficult period ahead.

Policy Solutions: Pandemic recovery will depend on political rediscovery

The current culture wars have been showing up in schools and districts, making local school board races increasingly partisan. The 2024 presidential race is placing even more attention on the partisan divide in local education policies and decisions. Columnist Jonathan E. Collins writes that education advocates can leverage this focus and help put aside partisan politics and meet the post-pandemic challenges students face.

Rhetoric of Repairs: Pathos Analysis of Joe Biden’s Victory Speech

This paper aims to explore pathos, the prominent emotional appeal, in Joe Biden’s presidential victory speech delivered on 7 November 2020 at Wilmington in the United States of America. The speech was delivered upon the conclusion of the presidential race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, wherein Biden led the election with 306 electoral votes against Trump’s 232. The paper is informed by three objectives: how Biden’s speech seeks to arouse certain emotions in the audience, what emotions in the audience are triggered, and how those emotions assist Biden in successfully delivering his intent of repair and reconciliation by persuading his audience, the American people. To fulfill these objectives, employing the method of a rhetorical analysis, the paper explicates the speech investigating how the lexical choices in the victory speech appeal to specific feelings and emotions of the audience. The analysis concludes that Biden, the orator, warrants reconstruction and reconciliation by appealing to seven dominant emotions: confidence, trust, optimism, (in)gratitude, empathy, camaraderie, and American pride. Hence, the paper demonstrates the fundamentals of doing a rhetorical analysis and further motivates some aspirants seeking a career in script writing and oratory.

Voting Rights in Georgia: A Short History

Abstract: This article is a brief history of the struggle for Black voting rights and against determined opposition in Georgia since the end of the Civil War. After a brief period during Reconstruction when there was significant Black voting and Black representation in the Georgia legislature, Black people were systematically denied both voting rights and representation in the state of Georgia. After 1944, when the US Supreme Court ruled against the all-white primary, and especially after 1965, with the passage of the Voting Rights Act, white Georgia politicians tried any number of strategies to limit minority voting strength, from efforts to limit Black registration, to manipulating election districts and voting rules to keep African Americans from winning elective office. These efforts continued, and in many ways increased after the Supreme Court in 2013 ended the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Nonetheless, the increasing demographic power of metro Atlanta, with its large minority population, was a key in 2020 to the narrow victory of Joseph Biden in the presidential race in Georgia, and the election of two liberal Democratic US Senators, including the first African American and Jew elected in the state's history.

The Risk of Narrow, Disputable Results in the U.S. Electoral College

Abstract Close elections are important for many reasons, including that consequent election disputes can weaken democratic legitimacy and risk political violence. We quantify the probability of close outcomes in US presidential races with novel applications of empirical election models from several sources. We show that razor-thin margins are very likely under the Electoral College (EC). And we establish that the EC causes this closeness: It would not occur under any plausibly comparable popular vote system. The tendency of the EC to generate close elections is found today and throughout US presidential voting history.

Women in the U.S. 2024 elections

Author looks at the presidential elections in the USA, in particular the participation of women candidates in the race for both the highest post in the executive branch and seats in Congress. The author underlines that the Democratic Party is losing voters, and the winner of the race - D. Trump - has not only taken the top post, votes in key states, but has also managed to win majorities in both houses of Congress. The author also considers how different categories of the American population voted and how this affected the outcome of this presidential race.

Традиция и прецедент в зеркале предвыборной кампании США 2024 г.

Another presidential election ended in the United States in November. 2024 has become one of the most politically turbulent periods in recent US history. In a time of 3.5 weeks, the country has witnessed: a split of the Democratic party, J. Biden’s refusal to participate in the elections only 3 months before the end of the race, an attempted murder of his opponent, first black woman nomination as a candidate for presidential race, her appointment bypassing primary elections i. e. the will of American electorate. In 2024, traditionalistic country, the United States, which is governed by 235‑year-old Constitution, “violated” so many of its own rules, and created such long-term legal precedents that testify not only to the crisis of the US electoral system, but to transformations in its political systemin general. Their consequences will have an impact on the domestic policy of the country but also might raise the question of the United States’ global leadership. Methodological basis of this article includes systemic, historical and comparative approaches. They allow reader to consider internal political processes in the United States as a result of interaction among state institutions and society, under the influence of external factors, at a certain historical period. Comparative analysis allows to evaluate the dynamics of changes among this system key elements: political parties, President, Congress, electorate, as well as to assess how, and in what period of American history, external factors such as electoral cycle, public opinion polls, social outbursts, state of economy, traditions etc. influenced this balance. The author evaluates long-term consequences of the precedent when Democratic party appointed its new favorite, bypassing the voters. Based on the historically identified features of the modern American electoral system, raises the question if the party’s role in the electoral process has changed, or it is just a vision of changes. Finally, the author identifies possible areas for US electoral system reform.

U.S. Congressional Elections in 2024

The article deals with elections in the U.S. Congress in 2024. It analyzes positions of political partisan candidates for the Senate and the House of Representatives, especially the fighting among members of the Republican faction in the Congress. The article discusses the interconnection between these election campaign and the presidential race of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. There is an analysis of the confrontation between supporters and opponents of military and economic assistance to Ukraine and Israel. Results of the elections permitted the Republican party to grab control of all branches of power. The article tackles the appointment of some members of the Congress to the Trump administration. The disagreements between the Republican legislators and the White House are also mentioned.

Democracia como ‘mensaje’ en disputa en las elecciones brasileñas de 2022:

Influenced by Trumpism, Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil, has been presenting unsubstantiated claims about the existence of purported vulnerabilities in the local electronic voting system during the 2022 presidential race. As Bolsonaro gives visibility to such claims, that system (and consequently democracy) can be performatively (or ‘productively’) discredited and targeted through digital circulation and textual violence. This research resorts to Foucauldian constructs and transdisciplinary perspectives to trace different media spaces. These point to how disputes and dynamics of (de)naturalisation of violence become (in)visible in Brazil’s 2022 electoral context.

Strategy and Subterfuge: Billy Graham’s Political Machinations from Montreux to the Mayflower Hotel and Beyond

Abstract One of the turning points in the 1960 presidential campaign was a gathering of 150 Protestant ministers at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on September 7, 1960, two days after Labor Day. During the closed-door gathering, Protestant leaders, including Norman Vincent Peale, unanimously adopted a statement warning about the dangers to the First Amendment and the separation of church and state should a Roman Catholic be elected president. Drawing on newly available archival sources, this article examines the role of religion in the 1960 campaign, including John F. Kennedy’s long struggle to neutralize the issue and the significance of Paul Blanshard’s 1949 best-seller, American Freedom and Catholic Power. Although Peale was roundly criticized for his role in the Mayflower gathering, the real force behind the meeting was Billy Graham, who did not attend. After assuring Kennedy in a letter dated August 10, 1960, that he, Graham, would not raise the religious issue in the campaign, Graham, at Peale’s behest, convened a group of Protestant ministers at the Montreux Palace Hotel in Switzerland eight days later to discuss how they could deny Kennedy’s election in November. The direct consequence of the Montreux meeting was the Mayflower Hotel gathering. While Peale took the heat for the meeting, Graham continued to play both sides, insisting publicly that he was neutral in the presidential race while working behind the scenes to advance Nixon’s candidacy, a strategy he employed again twenty years later in an attempt to jettison the reelection of a fellow evangelical, Jimmy Carter.

План Дж. Байдена по налаживанию отношений США со странами Латинской Америки: ожидания и реальность 2021 года

Introduction. During the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency, the relations of the United States with the countries of the Latin American region were greatly damaged. The election plan of Joe Biden meant providing assistance to some countries in Central America and assumed a return to the foreign policy strategy of Barack Obama. After the Democratic candidate’s victory in the 2020 presidential race, the expert community of Latin Americanists expected the expansion of Biden’s plan and the formation of a new U.S. foreign policy doctrine regarding Latin America. The purpose of the article is to find out what expectations the experts (scholars, former politicians, representatives of human rights organizations, etc.) had for the reviving of U.S. relations with Latin American countries in 2021 and how these expectations were met. Methods and materials. The research is based on the analysis of the expert community opinion towards the Latin American policy of Biden’s administration and the correlation of this opinion with the actual policy. The author uses methods of discourse analysis and comparative analysis. Analysis. The cancellation of Trump’s migration orders by the new administration was perceived by experts as a positive signal to improve U.S. relations with Latin American countries. However, Biden’s first 100 days showed that the president did not intend to expand the provisions of his election plan. The increasing flows of illegal migrants and local crises emerging in Latin America have forced the expert community to doubt the possibility of Biden’s plan to cope with new challenges. Results. The study showed that most of the expectations about the improvement of U.S. relations with the countries of the Latin American region were not justified. The reason for that was not only the narrowness of Biden’s plan itself but also the imperfection of the American bureaucratic system and external crises. According to experts, by the end of 2021, the Latin American policy of the new administration did not have any fundamentally new achievements that could significantly change the situation that had developed under President Trump’s administration.

‘Hustlers vs dynasties’: Confronting patrimonial capitalism in Kenya's 2022 elections

During Kenya's 2022 presidential race, William Samoei Ruto, the country's ex‐Deputy President, successfully leveraged his ‘Hustler Nation’ campaign to clinch victory. This campaign played on the struggles of the informal economy labourers, pledging a ‘hustler’ government dedicated to their cause. However, Ruto's campaign also utilized rhetoric against the deeply rooted ‘dynasties’ of Kenya's patrimonial capitalism, exploiting widespread dissatisfaction with the political and economic dominance of the Kenyatta family, including the incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta. Throughout the campaign, voters debated the acceptable extent of wealth held by the country's affluent families and the potential of such wealth to manipulate democratic politics. This concise article unpacks the moral undertones of Kenyan disillusionment with Kenyatta supremacy, calling for reinvigorated anthropological scrutiny of the confrontations against modern patrimonial capital and the emerging resistances framed in the discourse of economic justice.

Climate nags: Affect and the convergence of global risk in online networks

ABSTRACT Scholars have observed the need to better understand the role of emotion in the issue of climate change, as well as to better convey the relationship between climate and other global crises. This article takes up these two positions, investigating the way social media facilitates affective connections between climate and other global risks. Using Twitter data from three global events – Covid, the 2020 U.S. presidential race, and the Russia–Ukraine war – the study examines how users connect climate change to each event. Placing these discussions in the context of online issue publics and ecocriticism, the paper examines the way users employ affect to connect these events to climate change. The paper uses a quantitatively driven qualitative approach, combining computational methods with a thematic analysis of affective expressions. Interestingly, sentiment was not universally negative, and the qualitative findings further suggest that users combine emotions in contradictory ways, expressed through the themes Weary Zealotry, The Hope–Disgust Dialectic, Climate as Proto-Disaster, Idiots and Enemies, and Global Solidarity. It is argued that a modified version of Beck’s ‘imagined communities of global risk’ provides a framework for the role of affect in people’s relationship to climate change.

Competitive yet unfair: May 2023 elections and authoritarian resilience in Turkey

ABSTRACT On May 14, Turkish voters headed to the polls to vote for presidential and parliamentary elections. This was the most challenging race yet for authoritarian populist Erdoğan, as the ongoing economic crisis and deadly earthquakes severely diminished his performance legitimacy. Moreover, the opposition parties united against his regime by rallying behind a joint presidential candidate. However, Erdoğan turned the tables on the opposition and won the presidential race for a third consecutive term while his electoral bloc secured a majority in the parliament. This paper analyses the context and results of Turkey’s 2023 twin elections. We highlight the features of the competitive authoritarian regime, Erdoğan’s religio-nationalist electoral strategy, and the opposition’s fragile state and weak strategy to explain Erdoğan’s electoral resilience.