How Do Americans Determine Their Reasons to Vote

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Americans basing their vote on the 4 ways of knowing (perception, reason, language & emotion) in the upcoming presidential election

The United States of America is the world’s largest democracy. Every four years they hold presidential elections in which the public is to determine by vote who wins. The American people through decision and judgment cast out there vote to who they believe is the best person to lead their country. They must base their decision on what they see through media reports on television, newspapers and what they hear on the radio and from fellow citizens. The decision in the end is made through the influences of the 4 ways of knowing: emotion, language, perception and reason. Emotion is a key way of knowing as it forms the ground base for weather they like the candidate or not. Language and reason form the base of the decision as they convey the aims of each candidate through the reasons they give and the language they use to present those reasons. They perceive how the candidates take action in their campaign and in the debates to guide themselves to what they think is the right decision.

Reasoning is a process we go through everyday. We reason weather we chose to eat an apple rather than a banana or if we should take the bus or walk. During the elections the American people seek reasoning on both sides: from themselves and from the candidates. The candidates for the election, Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama both interpret as much reasoning behind each argument to make it seem as realistic and achievable to the people. The voters apply reasoning to the arguments and plans put forward by the candidates to see which one seems to be most beneficial for their own interest as well as the interest of their families and that of the American population. In the first presidential debate, Mitt Romney was a key figure and was according to most Americans the dominant figure in the debate. He had a good mental attitude and came across very well prepared. However when people looked in to the so-called facts he was mentioning as parts of his arguments, they found that he was either being incredible vague but using word play to cover it up or using false facts. The word play he used was clever but caused massive discussion and hesitation towards the strength and truth of his arguments among media and people watching the debate. The media then quickly spread the word showing that there is an area of weakness in using the four ways of knowledge, as people who did not realize it or did not understand what Romney was doing showing that the reasoning the candidates use is not always accurate making viewers more prone to using their reasoning to know these things.

Emotion is an initial and continuous way of knowing. When the election campaigns started everybody already had an emotional standpoint towards the two candidates for reason such as: family, belief and history. All of those factors add up to give viewers an emotional view on the candidates. Some will naturally side with side the candidate is representing simply because they are from that party or they will side with one candidate because they have family who support that party, they are racist (not always relevant) or any reason why they feel emotional distaste towards the opposite party. Emotional arguments are usually the most problematic as these arguments are the ones which people stick to the most. They are usually very hard to be altered by reasoning from the other side making it incredible difficult to win certain states as they are built on this one party. This is another weakness with the ways of knowing as this means the people block out any reasoning, new information or good ideas, making them very unaware of changes and improvements going on around them. On the other hand this is also a very useful strength for the American voters, as they have no need for arguing with others around them in these states as the majority of the people around them have sided with the same party.

Perception is a very key form of knowing during the elections, as this is the main string that the candidates have to pull. The perception of the future which an American citizen has is a very strong will and opinion. It takes very persuading, intellectual and realistic arguments from either of the two candidates to alter the perception of an American or any one voting. Perception is the main factor influencing most Americans when it comes to the elections. Their own perception of the future and the perception of the candidates must have a vague overlap somewhere in order for the candidates to win the vote of the people. Perception is also very closely linked to reasoning with Americans. The reasoning behind the perception in usually what drives the arguments of the candidate linking them close together, which can produce a barrier which can be very hard to get through to convince the people. Perception is also how they see the candidates, the actions they take during campaigns and the actions they expect the candidate that wins to put forward. The perception way of knowing is also both a weakness and a strength. The strength in using perception is that it includes and expectation and a direction, unlike emotion which is only the expectation of a victory for that party. The weakness is that it is barely alterable and it differs from person to person in large ways as some people might expect change in different areas of development such as the economy, education, agriculture, export etc. This makes it hard and puts unrealistic pressure on the candidates to perform to a realistic as wells as satisfying at the public level which creates an untruthful representation, as the voters will go with whoever seems to satisfy their perception rather then something benefitting the whole country.

Language is another way of knowing and also plays a key role in the elections and how the people make their decision. Politics is a very complex subject and has very many difficult and hard to comprehend words within the range of the subject. This means that the candidate must be able to present their ideas in a more ‘down to earth’ manner for the people to be able to understand, take in and then of course be able to make a decision from it. This leads to voters to side with candidates who in their mind have a good way of presenting the information. However the only way to get to a final answer, which is correct on a personal level, is ultimately a combination of all of the ways of knowing. The debates play a key role in making clear who has the ability to provide realistic ideas, supported by facts, presented in an understandable manner, which is directed to everybody at a personal level and a communal level. Language is a key factor to understanding the other elements of making the decision, which is why it is so key towards the end result. It is definitely a strength for the American people to use language as it helps them understand and is the origin of all the other elements. The weakness of it is that is can be very manipulative and persuasive for the worst. It can cause people to turn sides without using the other 3 as they are entranced by good speaking abilities. For example during the 2008 elections President Obama was praised for his excellent manner of speaking to the public making him an excellent candidate for president. However there were people who based their vote entirely on this creating the weaker side of this way of knowing.

In general the strength overpower the negatives however the American population definitely has people relying simply on one of these different ways of knowing. It is incredibly difficult to be able to pick up on all the ways the candidates try to convince you and still manage to keep an unbiased view and use all of these methods in the process, hence why I believe is that the American population will all rely more heavily on one rather then other but this will vary from person to person making it very scattered.

Bibliography

President Barack Obama 1st and 2nd Presidential debate October 2012
Governor Mitt Romney 1st and 2nd Presidential debate October 2012

Bibliography: President Barack Obama 1st and 2nd Presidential debate October 2012 Governor Mitt Romney 1st and 2nd Presidential debate October 2012