Chapter 7 and 8 of Campaigns & Elections covers interest group politics and media-campaign effects and
interactions. Interest groups are one of the great “boogey-men” of American politics, but they play an important
role in campaigns and elections. We might be concerned that interest group campaign assistance might mean
that elected officials would be beholden to those groups after the win, but is that true? Do we have empirical
evidence to that effect? What, in fact, do interest groups’ campaign contributions get them?
With the media, we have hold two ideas in our heads at the same time: media are necessary and adversarial in
a democratic system, but they can also be useful to campaigns if a campaign understands the incentives and
limits on media. Remember that while a free press is a public good, it is a good provided by private firms. That
has real implications on the way campaigns and media will interact. Furthermore, campaigns have to
understand who is consuming media at any given time. What to talk to partisans? The local paper isn’t the best
idea. What to talk to the average voter, avoid Fox News or MSNBC. What, then, are the costs and benefits for
being too distant or too close to media, and to what extent can media access actually harm a campaign?
Consider your readings from Campaigns & Elections and read these two pieces
Sample Solution
hildren (Horse, 2001, 2). Their sadistic daydreaming as children influenced them as adults to act out their fantasies. Serial killer Ted Bundy carried knives around with him at the age of three due to his fantasies of controlling people with knives (Mukherjee, 1998, 1). He used knives on at least fifty women when he was older and each victim was a substitute for his mother whom he daydreamed about killing numerously but could never follow through with it. Although sadistic daydreaming as a child can lead to serial killer behavior, the most common denominator of serial killers is abuse as a child. Most serial killers undergo many forms of abuse as children. Sexual, psychological and physical abuse as a youngster fills a child with hate and self-loathing that torments a child to become vengeful towards others for their own troublesome family backgrounds. More than 43% of serial killers were sexually molested as children (Schechter and Everitt, 293). Serial killer John Bartsch was bathed by his mother in Germany until he was eighteen years old. His mother would clean his private parts that would sexually stimulate him. This mental abuse caused Bartsch’s psychopathic fantasies, which lead to the killing of his victims. More than 74% of serial killers were subjected to continuous psychological torture as a child (Schechter and Everitt, 293). Bartsch’s mother screamed and threatened him numerous times of cutting off his penis, which lead him to his fear of his sexuality. FBI findings prove that over 42% of serial killers have suffered severe physical abuse (Schechter! and Everitt, 293). John Bartsch who was exposed to sexually and psychological abuse was also exposed to physical abuse. Bartsch tells psychologist Paul Moor, “She’s broken more than one wooden cloth’s hangar across my back.” Bartsch traumatic childhood experiences prove how abuse as a child leads to serial killer behavior later in life. The development of a serial killer comes directly from their childhood experiences. Most serial killers display at least one of the “Homicide Triads,” adolescent bed-wetting, arson or sadistic activity. This connection between serial killers as youngsters supports the theory that childhood experiences lead directly to psychopathic behavior of a serial killer (Horse, 2001, 2). Parents and other role models need to look ou>
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