Decentralization

Decentralization poses a challenge to the political success of candidates running for office in our big and diverse country. Decentralization is when the power of political parties is more pronounced at the state and local levels than at the national level. You have said in our video lecture that parties are the link to public policy and elections and we have stated that political parties are teams of people that are trying to get elected. These teams are made up of people who are coordinating with each other whose ideologies diverge to some degree. Party leaders make their own connections, mobilize their own voters, and care about their own interests and groups within their localities, which makes it difficult for parties to connect on a national level.
Our book states that is it more beneficial for candidates in subnational elections to adopt the ideologies of their state or locality first. Therefore, it is more beneficial that parties who want to win elections to be moderate and inclusive at a state level so they can gain supporters, attract all groups of people, repel few to form a tight coalition to have success at the national level. This means that the parties main focus is not brought into the limelight until after the election, so we do not really know the main focus or goals of the party until after the election, which is why I think that decentralization poses a problem for party unity. Our society is so heterogeneous that it decentralization is the logical response, to start from the bottom up to gain support from the state’s and then moving toward national support. In the end we still have our own opinions, stereotypes, and goals – some are common and some aspects we disagree on, so one candidate or party cannot take care of all of the voters’ needs and goals. We do need big and diverse parties, but it also does hinder effective partisan action because we believe and agree in some common things but not on everything.
Some problems decentralization and heterogeneity pose for party unity is that officeholders are always looking at party claims and objectives in the light of the own career aspirations. If the party’s claims and the individuals aspirations in office are different, the party loses support. Also, geographical differences provide an array of different economic interests, political attitudes and culture differences across the nation. Therefore, candidates and parties must present different stances and cohesion from issue to issue.
President Obama used technology to his advantage to coordinate his political campaign. The link below describes how the president used social networking sites, text messaging, blogs, television, and other media sources to reach out to and gain the support of citizens across the nation. He also got a record number of people to go out and vote in the 2008 election. Here is a link to an article I found: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080128/melber
Tim Kaine is the Democratic National Committee chair and his "first goal" is to mobilize President Obama's millions of supporters behind his plans for the country. The future outlook of how the citizens view the Democratic party rely on him and his job to unify the nation, set the tone and main focus of the party that is similar to the presidents’ tone and focus in the white house.
Michael Steel is the Republican National Committee chair and is the first black national committee chair. His job to rebuild the face of the party, raise money, gain more supporters, and regain the confidence of his party followers.