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A
MERICAN NATIONAL ELECTIONS ARE ABOUT CONFLICT—THEY ARE
contests in which candidates compete for political offi ce, offering voters
a choice between different backgrounds, records, and promises. In the 2012
presidential elections, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney
gave the electorate two distinct, competing visions of what the federal
government should do, from what the tax code should look like to how this
money should be spent and what regulations should be imposed on individuals
and corporations. One of the central themes of this chapter is that elections
matter; what government does depends on who wins these political contests.
Some policies remain the same no matter who wins—but there is no doubt that
a President Romney would make many different choices if he was in offi ce, from
defense spending to Medicare, alternative energy, corporate regulations, and
Supreme Court nominees.
The same is true in House and Senate elections. As we have seen over
the last two years, the policies emerging from a Republican-led House of
Representatives look very different that those enacted when the Democrats
were in the majority. And if the Senate had switched from a Democratic to a
Republican majority in 2012, the policies emerging from that chamber would be
very different as well. Even at the level of individual House and Senate seats,
elections determine who represents a given state or district—which policies
they fi ght for, whose demands they consider when deciding what to do, and
which party agenda they will support in Congress.IN THE 2012 ELECTION, BARACK
Obama and Mitt Romney offered
Americans a choice between two
distinct visions of government.
Throughout the campaigns,
and especially during their
three debates, the candidates
competed to appeal to voters.