The US presidential elections are of prestigious importance throughout the world, and the election campaigns in this regard hold esteemed significance. As far as presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 are concerned, they were unique, having many similarities and differences. The main similarity lies with the same candidate nomination from the Republican Party in both who won twice. Both campaigns focused on domestic issues such as making the US solid and respectable worldwide, making concentric and focused foreign policies, solving the economic and health problems. However, the main difference was the addition of the war on terrorism episode in the 2004 campaign, comparing to the 2000 elections. In addition, the war in Iraq and gaining much more cooperation from the world on war against terrorism on diplomatic and defense fronts were included in the list. Meanwhile, the winning candidate, i.e., Bush, gained votes of 54% men, 44% women, 55% white, 9 % black and 41% Asian, with 47% of adults having the age limit of 18-24 years in the elections of 2000 (Ahuja). Similarly, the statistics of elections of 2004 reveals that the same candidate gained votes of 55% men, 48% women, 58% white, 11 % black and 43% Asian, with 45% of adults in the age of 18-29 years (Binstock).
Furthermore, the elections of 2008 and 2012 had backlashes of previous polls. The central issue in 2008 was the war of Iraq in alliance with economic crisis (open market or Govt. funded) and the healthcare system. In these polls, the first black President was chosen to benefit from Bush’s unpopularity and the old age of John McCain. The major shift of domestic and foreign policy was to withdraw and reverse from Iraq war (AL-Dihaymawee et al.). In 2012, again, Obama won, focusing on winding up the Iraq war, war on terrorism and economic revival.
Moreover, the elections of 2016 were the first-ever elections that widen the cultural and ethnic divide in the country. On winning of Trump, the minorities, rural people, and black Americans protested and mourned. The same dreadful delusion of the general public came true with executive orders of constructing Mexican wall, banning immigration for various countries, shuffling immigrant policies and even dividing the migrated parents from children. Such policies and announcements contributed to the ongoing division of the American people (Bobo).
Work Cited
Ahuja, Sunil. “The 2012 American Elections in Perspective.” NATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE: 14.
AL-Dihaymawee, Doaa Taher, Shahla Sharifi, and Ali Alizadeh. “Obama Ending the War in Iraq: a Critical Discourse Analysis.” Psychology and Education Journal 58.4 (2021): 847-862.
Binstock, Robert H. “Older voters and the 2004 election.” The Gerontologist 46.3 (2006): 382-
Bobo, Lawrence D. “Racism in Trump’s America: reflections on culture, sociology, and the 2016 US presidential election.” The British journal of sociology 68 (2017): S85-S104.384.
