Benjamin Ginsberg's Politics By Other Means: Response

Politics by Other Means Response Paper This essay addressed the decrease in voter turnout due to the increase in of political forces over the American political system. The authors of this essay, Politics by Other Means, are Benjamin Ginsberg and Martin Shefter. They commence the essay by stating that voter turnout is low because of political deadlock. They also state that many issues are not resolved by allowing the individual person to chime in their opinion, instead political forces, factions, use other methods to make their powers known in politics and to defeat their opponents. The “growing use of nonelectoral weapon, the criminal justice system,” has causing many political figures their reputations and the trust of the public towards the government is just one example (200). The authors also stated that there is a trend of the Republican party controlling the White House and the Democratic party controlling Congress. Although this electoral deadlock is bad for the general public, because it creates an atmosphere of why vote if it will not make a difference, this is beneficial to the political parties. As the authors stated, “to break the electoral deadlock underlying the system, large number of voters would have to be

It is evident that the increase of factions in the American political system are causing a downfall in government even though the authors refer to them as political forces. The main issue I had with the essay is that the authors condemned the national security for creating counterintelligence operations directed against groups opposed to the policies of the executive branch. Since this essay was written before nine-eleven, it addresses the national security as a way for political forces to threaten the careers of their opponents, however, we now see the national security as a must have to protect the American people from similar