Politics

If Presidential Candidates Were Like NASCAR Drivers…

Published

7 years ago

February 17, 2016

Jeff Desjardins

One appreciation I have for several North American sports is amount of reverence given to the team uniform.

Whether we are talking about the Boston Red Sox, the Montreal Canadiens, or the Dallas Cowboys, all aspects of team apparel are designed to represent the essence and history of the team. Jerseys are for the team and fans, and not for the advertisers that want to cover every square inch of material with sponsors.

However, not all North American sports can make this claim.

In fact, some sports like NASCAR take the exact opposite approach: they let each racing team cover their car and apparel with as many ads as possible, and allow this to be part of their income. While it is horrendous from a visual perspective, at least there is a sort of brutal honesty with it all.

It’s obvious that each racer is bought and sold by sponsors, and it’s clear exactly who those advertisers are.

Racing for Presidency

Dan Carlin from the Common Sense podcast frequently mentions that it would be great to live in a world where all politicians had to wear NASCAR-like uniforms displaying the logos of their financial supporters.

Can you imagine if each time Hillary Clinton or Marco Rubio gave a speech, a Goldman Sachs crest was embedded on the shoulder of each outfit?

NASCAR Candidates

Today’s infographic comes to us from Represent.us, and it shows the top donor industries for the major presidential candidates still in the race. In the graphic, the top five industry fundraising sources are indicated for each candidate. They are ranked from #1 to #5 based on the amount of money raised, and the width of each connection is based on this information.

If Presidential Candidates Were Like NASCAR Drivers...

Note: in this case, we are looking at the industries of individual campaign donors, and corporate or individual donations to Political Action Committees or the parties themselves are not included in this summary.

So, who were the biggest campaign contributors?

It’s no surprise to see that Wall Street has been extremely influential in donations. More specifically, Wall Street donated most to those representing the establishment, such as Clinton, Bush, and Rubio.

The other major donors came from industries such as law and real estate. Lawyers gave heavily to Clinton, Rubio, Sanders, Cruz, and Bush, and the real estate industry gave mainly to Rubio and Bush.

Campaign Funding to Date

How much have candidates raised to date? Here’s a recent roundup of that data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

The darker bar coincides with “outside money” including conventional party committees as well as the more controversial super PACs and 501(c) “dark money” organizations. The lighter bar represents money that has gone directly to campaigns.

Related Topics:wall street presidential candidates nascar politicians lawyers

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Politics

Which Countries are the Most Polarized?

This chart plots polarization for various countries based on the Edelman Trust Institute’s annual survey of 32,000+ people.

Published

2 weeks ago

January 18, 2023

Pallavi Rao

Which Countries are the Most Polarized?

How do you measure something that’s made headlines for half a decade but is still difficult to quantify? We’re talking about polarization.

Even within the social sciences, polarization covers everything from racial segregation, to labor skill levels, to class divide, to political ideology.

How Do You Quantify Polarization?

Edelman’s data on which countries are the most polarized comes from survey results asking respondents two very simple questions:

How divided is their country?
How entrenched is the divide?

The questions help bring to light the social issues a particular country is facing and the lack of consensus on those issues.

Plotted against each other, a chart emerges. A country in the top–right corner of the chart is “severely polarized.” Countries located closer to the lower–left are considered less polarized.

In the report, Edelman identifies four metrics to watch for and measure which help quantify polarization.

Economic Anxieties	Will my family be better off in five years?
Institutional Imbalance	Government is viewed as unethical and incompetent.
Class Divide	People with higher incomes have a higher trust in institutions.
Battle for Truth	Echo chambers, and a low trust in media.

Following Edelman’s metrics, countries with economic uncertainty and inequality as well as institutional distrust are more likely to be polarized. Below, we look at key highlights from the chart.

Severely Polarized Countries

Despite being one of the largest economies in Latin America, Argentina is the most polarized country surveyed by a large margin. Foreign loan defaults, a high fiscal deficit, and now surging inflation have created a perfect storm in the country.

43% of the Argentinian respondents said they will be better off in five years, down 17 percentage points from last year.

Along with fiscal upheaval, Argentinians are also dealing with enduring corruption in the public sector and abrupt policy reversals between governments. Only 20% of those surveyed in Argentina said they trusted the government—the least of all surveyed countries.

Here are all six of the countries considered to be severely polarized:

In the U.S., heightened political upheaval between Democrats and Republicans over the last few years has led to strengthening ideological stances and to an abundance of headlines about polarization. Only 42% of respondents in the country trust the government.

And in South Africa, persistent inequality and falling trust in the African National Congress also check off Edelman’s metrics. It’s also second after Argentina with the least trust in government (22%) per the survey.

Moderately Polarized Countries

The biggest cluster of 15 countries are in moderately polarized section of the chart, with all continents represented.

Some are on the cusp of being severely polarized, including economic heavyweights like Japan, the UK, France, and Germany. On the other hand, smaller economies like Thailand, Kenya, and Nigeria, are doing comparatively better on the polarization chart.

Less Polarized Countries

Countries with fair economic outlook and high trust in institutions including China, Singapore, and India are in the bottom left sector of the chart.

It’s interesting to note that of the seven countries in that sector, three are not democracies. That said, there are also more developing countries on this list as well, which could also be a factor.

Looking Ahead

Edelman notes that polarization is both “cause and consequence of distrust,” creating a self-fulfilling cycle. Aside from the four metrics stated above, concerns about the erosion of civility and weakening social fabric also lead to polarization.

Edelman polarization quote

As global events unfold in 2023—including looming worries of a recession—it will be fascinating to see how countries might switch positions in the year to come.

Where does this data come from?

Source: The 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer

Data note: Survey conducted: Nov 1 – Nov 28, 2022. Survey included 32,000+ respondents in 28 countries. Russia was omitted from this year’s survey. See page 2 of the report for more details.