{"id":38352,"date":"2020-10-31T15:24:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T15:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=38352"},"modified":"2020-10-31T15:24:52","modified_gmt":"2020-10-31T15:24:52","slug":"tuesdays-election-is-crucial-for-the-fate-of-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/tuesdays-election-is-crucial-for-the-fate-of-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday\u2019s election is \u201ccrucial for the fate of democracy\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A London-based academic has claimed that this year\u2019s election of Joe Biden vs Donald Trump will be essential for democracy in the US.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nitasha Kaul, professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster, tells Voice of London how elections do not just consist of bringing a party to power, but that they are essential to bringing equality to America&#8217;s future.<\/p>\n<p>She says: \u201cIn any event, my view is that these elections are not just about bringing a party to power but crucial for the fate of democracy in America.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_43527\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/tuesdays-election-is-crucial-for-the-fate-of-democracy\/joe-biden\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-43527\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43527\" class=\"size-large wp-image-43527\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/10\/joe-biden-1024x724.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"724\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-43527\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by: Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Since it was announced that the 2020 US election\u00a0would go ahead, various celebrities including musicians, models and actors\/actresses have proceeded to make good use of their online platforms to campaign for people to register and vote.<\/p>\n<p>Pop star Lady Gaga is amongst one of the numerous celebrities encouraging people to take part in the US elections.<\/p>\n<p>She has been extensively pushing her millions of followers to vote for several weeks through a series of creative daily and weekly posts uploaded to her Instagram and Twitter accounts.<\/p>\n<p>One of the posts consisted of a sing-along video in which Gaga told her fans to visit turbovote.org to check voter registration and learn how to vote. Within this video, Gaga was also shown giving information on which details and documents to bring when registering to vote.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I know this is cheesy\ud83e\udd13&#8230;but <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EuDdrZXqhn\">https:\/\/t.co\/EuDdrZXqhn<\/a> is easy. This is my new single \ud83d\ude02 Don\u2019t give up &#8230;.it\u2019s important your voice is heard! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7CwTIohtMw\">pic.twitter.com\/7CwTIohtMw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ladygaga\/status\/1316771044049391617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 15, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>One of Gaga&#8217;s latest posts uploaded to Instagram and Twitter also included a 2 minute and 50 seconds long video of her showcasing her most iconic outfits and addressing the people who still haven\u2019t voted.<\/p>\n<p>The star appears in outfits including the meat dress she wore to the 2010 MTV Music Video Awards and emphasises the importance of voting. In this video, she quotes:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI need to talk to people who don\u2019t have a plan to vote, are undecided, people who are unsure if they even believe in voting at all.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe, no matter how you feel right now about the election, you are still accountable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you want to change this system, if you want this country to be different than it is right now, you have got to participate in this election.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UnJeKoCx1v\">https:\/\/t.co\/UnJeKoCx1v<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Ph2iFxNOEE\">pic.twitter.com\/Ph2iFxNOEE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ladygaga\/status\/1322209256611852294?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 30, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>While some may wonder, does it make a difference that some celebrities are using their social media accounts to encourage people to vote?<\/p>\n<p>Professor Kaul says how the influence which many celebrities hold within their online platforms should be used in events such as the upcoming US elections, as this will push the masses to take action. She quotes:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe point about having a powerful voice in the public sphere is to be able to use it for greater critical thinking and action, as many US celebrities have done.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In this sense, the role of technology in enabling this outreach is a positive instance, and a much-needed counterbalance to how technologically manipulation often works against producing democratic outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_38366\" style=\"width: 1033px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38366\" class=\"size-full wp-image-38366\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/10\/Flickr-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1023\" height=\"581\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/10\/Flickr-1.jpg 1023w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/10\/Flickr-1-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/10\/Flickr-1-768x436.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/10\/Flickr-1-120x67.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1023px) 100vw, 1023px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-38366\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image from Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The academic also states:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Anything that helps voter turnout would be welcomed, that includes people encouraging others if they have a public voice.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;People voting in much larger numbers is also indicative of a renewed engagement with the very basic foundational principles of safeguarding existing rights for all, that are at stake in the US in November 2020.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>More about the 2020 US elections:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/your-voice-is-your-vote-celebrities-on-who-they-think-should-be-us-president\/\">Your voice is your vote! &#8211; celebrities on who they think should be US president\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/why-should-uks-young-adult-population-follow-the-events-of-the-us-election\/\">Why should UK&#8217;s young adult population follow the events of the US election<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Words: Gabriela Jimenez | Subbing: Anuj Datta<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A London-based academic has claimed that this year\u2019s election of Joe Biden vs Donald Trump will be essential for democracy in the US. Nitasha Kaul, professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":38365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}