Luz Rioja

Lupia Readings Reviews

March 22, 2019

1. Write a 2 page single space review on Lupia's readings and apply his argument and
theories and apply it to a current political issue or candidate. Email to me in a word
document by 9:30pm tonight.

In “Complexity and Framing,” Lupia discusses the concept of framing when

attempting to educate an audience. When legislators discuss politics, they must first be
trained to be able to speak to general audience from an educative standpoint. In most
political lobbying scenarios, legislators are concerned with changing constituents’
opinions, persuading large numbers to advocate for the issues they are concerned with,
and obtaining sufficient votes to continue to execute that outreach power. They have
practiced how to frame the issue they are attempting to advocate for in order to convince
a wide audience to see things from their perspective—at times no matter the financial or
social costs. According to Lupia, this mode of thinking involves making a claim of
“competence” for a general American citizen should know—the standard knowledge that
gives the average citizen the power to form an opinion to be able to make a choice. At
times, legislators are able to convince their audience to place their choice over their
cultural and moral values.
In order to wield this power, legislators, lobbyists, or advocates must have a
general sense of how the majority of their audience is thinking and how they will react to
what they are advocating for. They must take in the social, financial, and political
environment their audience belongs to. As a press intern working for Congressman Salud
Carbajal (CA-24) at the House, I have personally experienced the amount of tedious work
placed into social media—a single tweet or Facebook post—in order to attempt to hold
people’s attention spans for as long as possible. We all know we are living in a digital era
where anything with words online has to be accompanied with visuals in order to hold a
glance or a video viewing for more than three seconds.
When discussing Lupia’s definition of framing while considering one of the most
controversial, non-partisan issues in the country—gun restriction policy—we see how
important it is for educators and legislators to connect with their audience when
advocating for either side of the issue. When he was a young boy, Rep. Carbajal found
his older sister dead in their family home. She had committed suicide by firearm. In 2018,
Rep. Carbajal was an original co-sponsor for the GVRO (Gun Violence Restriction Order)
Act. This is one of the many red flag laws or emergency background checks California
has enacted in the last decade. Whenever advocating for the issue—whether verbally on
the House floor or through an Op-Ed, Carbajal likes to begin with that story of personal
grief. He breaks from the “I’m Right, You’re Wrong” mentality by speaking on why no
person, no matter the age, should experience death. Credibility is achieved by breaking
from the idea that one has to appeal to a general audience or swaying to a popular
opinion. Gun reform policy varies from state to state. While California has the strictest
background check policies, mid-western Republican states are financially and socially
ruled by organizations that fund their campaigns such as the NRA. Carbajal breaks from
the taglines. He does not focus on mass rates or statistics. He does not approach the
issue or his audience from an educational standpoint. When trying to convince people
from pro-gun states to enforce stricter background checks on gun sales, he approaches
his audience through the “lone voter.”
It is much easier to focus on one person versus a massive audience when
advocating for a change of policy. Lupia debates this phenomenon of focusing on the
“lone voter” in “Political Roles” when searching for the opportunity of how to affect a
political outcome—how to balance increasing the general competence of an audience
(what they should know about an issue so they understand what you are arguing about)
while still thinking of the varying cultural and social background within that audience.
Lupia argues that educators can become more effective and efficient in arguing if they
are able to understand how information becomes competent in an environment where
people are aware of the different roles they are playing. In other words, while legislators
and advocators should pay attention to the “lone voter,” they should, more importantly,
be focusing on what political arena that lone voter could impact more. Lupia states that
the “lone voter’s role is to cast a single vote that determines which of the two parties will
have complete control over all aspects of government for all time” (Lupia, Ch.12). So, is
the lone voter is in charge of creating bipartisanship?
American citizens are commonly critiqued for incompetence in politics. Lupia
argues, however, they simply do not know things because it is does not form or partake
in their daily line of work. Let us discuss gun reform legislation once more. With the 116th
Democrat-run House, Californian legislators have become engrained in passing a form
of universal background checks bill in the country. However, there are so many
constituents at a state and local level that are not yet aware of the GVRO Act (and other
red flag laws) implementation. They do not know the tool that the bill is offering them nor
how it would benefit them to use it. The “lone voter” phenomenon works better to think of
at a state level rather than a federal level.
Lupia discusses the costs and benefits to educating and informing an audience in
Chapter 13. Is political learning a good investment? What are the political benefits to
educating the lone voter to vote one way or the other? After all, it is difficult for a
congressman or legislator to prioritize the political needs of one constituent over the
common well-being of the masses. On the other hand, when speaking to a general
audience, legislators are at times forced to frame their arguments in generalizations,
choosing very specifically what they say to an audience at a specific time and location.
This means that a lot of information is left out. In other words, Lupia states, information
will be beneficial for a lone voter if they have some level of competence or knowledge on
the topic or issue (Chap.13). Then again, “competence” or knowledge is a controversial
matter. When discussing a lack of affordable housing within a gentrified neighborhood,
for example, “competence” or “knowledge” on the issue could be present though personal
experience. An individual who has lived within that neighborhood for years and suddenly
find himself being evicted will have more than simple general knowledge on the housing
crisis than someone who is only recently moving into the neighborhood. I argue that while
“competence” is important for a lone voter, it does not always have to come in the form
of knowing all the facts.