Chapter 8

Public Issue Campaigns and Debates... have maintained a consistent foundation from it's founding with Jeffersonian Democracy with some significant changes.

An intelligent, well-informed pubic and electorate is the cornerstone of our constitutional republic and issues debated in the court of public opinion are the mortar which binds the structure together. Public relations practitioners act as lawyers in the public, hoping to make arguments strong enough to sway the public as the jury. More specifically, sway the key demographics that vote. Even more importantly is the recognition that a majority of publics do not vote so the concept of "majority rules" is not accurate. A small minority of the eligible voters can be placed into 3 categories of typical involvement: those interested in an issue for the full ramifications of the topic, Special interests which are concerned only about certain elements of the topic and Hot button issues which are those aroused only by emotionally debated elements.

Knowing as much information as possible about the key players and publics, what issues they are likely to respond to and how they are likely to respond is critical for any public relations practitioner. This information is invaluable in not only responding to unforeseen crises but those which can be anticipated as well.

One change that has occurred over the recent decade is the highly fractionalized and vocal zeal with which some political issues are dealt. This makes finding common ground for compromise nearly impossible and violence more likely.

One example that seems to illustrate all the elements discussed in this chapter is the recent passage of President Obama's health care bill. A clear majority of the general public was opposed to it, 41 states have taken action to stop or opt out of it and yet the minority opinion controlls a majority of seats in the Senate and House as well as the White House. The original debate started as a means to make health care insurance more affordable and slowly morphed into government subsidized health care and government run health care, taking on enormous debt during an economic recession or dishonestly shifting the debt to individual states like Texas and Louisiana. The President crafted an argument based on an image of millions of people not getting medical treatment and dying because they didn't have health insurance. The media gave very little challenge to this perspective, yet protests of angry voters gathered all across the country. When it seemed their so-called representatives were ignoring the publics opposition in order to follow an extreme left-wing ideological fantasy of socialized medicine, the groups became angry and threatening.