...Clueless Americans American citizens have the responsibility of electing power within in the country. This varies from town mayor to the president of the United States. Ironically, Americans are given so much freedom to decide, but Americans know very little about politics. This is a problem because citizens are often unhappy with authoritative figures, but they do not even understand what is going on to know which candidates to elect. Matthew Robinson, the author of the Clued article “Party On, Dudes!” discusses how “ignorance is the curse of the information age” and how Americans know more about television than a single thing that goes on in Congress. Furthermore, Robinson focused on polls and how they are influenced, shaped, and dominated by voter ignorance. Media also plays a role in voter opinion because of the main focus points and and people’s attraction to media (Robinson, Clues). With that being said Americans know very little about politics, which brings up problems with polls, media, and the electoral college. Robinson describes what Americans know about politics as discouraging. For example, the constitution serves as the supreme law of the land that was...
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...their entire approach to receive the victory vote. How they perform in this college is the single most important action of their career; a victory secures the presidency, a loss equates to nothing more than a superficial nod in a history textbook. What comes the drama and perils of a presidential election rests within the process of the Electoral College. A candidate plans, strategizes, and executes his or her entire campaign plan of action around the effect of the Electoral College (Stromberg, How the Electoral College Influences…). However, all is not...
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...Compare and contrast the electoral and institutional organization of the president and congress. The Executive branch and Congress are two majorly influential entities in the United States Government. Congress is responsible for passing laws and verifying that existing legislation is being carried out correctly. The Executive branch was originally responsible for enforcing legislation, yet today there is more of a focus on creating laws through suggesting legislation and executive orders. The president and Congress have very different means of election, the presidency being through the Electoral College and Congress through direct elections of the people. Their organizational structure is rather different, with the presidency being controlled mainly by one person and Congress being a rule of many. The Electoral College is the manner in which modern Americans elect their president. In the Electoral College, the general public believes that they are casting a vote for the candidate that they wish to be sworn in as Commander In Chief, but in reality, they are voting for the elector that they wish to vote. The elector will generally vote the way of the majority in the region that they are responsible for, which is determined by the districts from the House of Representatives, and the candidate who garners the largest portion of electoral votes wins the election. This election occurs every four years. Congress, on the other hand, is directly by the people and elections for...
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...The Electoral College was created for the purpose of making the little guys seem important, therefore making the number of Electoral College votes per state unequally dispersed. If the amount of Electoral College votes a state received was based on population, smaller states would not be relevant. While this dispersion method made our small states happy, it produced many a consequences and made the value of each person’s vote different. Each individual vote in California counts for about five times as much in the Electoral College as each individual vote in Maine. For instance, California has fifty-five electoral votes for a population of about 38.8 million people and maine has four electoral votes for a population of almost 1.33 million. California...
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...The Electoral College has been around for centuries and the longer it is around, the more corrupt it becomes. It originally started as a way for the president to be elected by a more knowledgeable party than the general public. This is because; in the 1800s people were not very educated when it came to politics. Since then the Electoral College has become essentially rigged and the only way to fix this issue is to eliminate it. People are controlling the way the Electoral College votes, whether it is by bribes or blackmail, people are somehow getting their way. Therefore, abolishing the Electoral College would give the public a more accurate representation in today’s society, along with giving the candidates a fair chance in the actual election. The Electoral College has become a very controversial topic in today’s society; mainly because many believe that it is no longer a just system and has primarily become a controlled system. Some opponents believe that it “contributes to political stability of the nation by encouraging a two-party system” (Kimberling 3). This statement is...
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...example, a president is only able to serve two terms in office and the president has to be elected back in office at that. This keeps new ideas and new people in office. Where there are pros, there are always cons. One con that comes with the Constitution is it is very hard to have the Constitution amended. There have only been a handful of times that the Constitution has been amended. The Bill of Rights is one that was able to be amended, and it was for a good cause. Another thing that has some American’s questioning the democracy in America is voting. Although there are many American’s that do not vote there are still several that do vote. Some American’s feel as if their vote does not even count because of the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a unique...
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...THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE by William C. Kimberling, Deputy Director FEC Office of Election Administration (The views expressed here are solely those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Federal Election Commission or any division thereof.) In order to appreciate the reasons for the Electoral College, it is essential to understand its historical context and the problem that the Founding Fathers were trying to solve. They faced the difficult question of how to elect a president in a nation that: • was composed of thirteen large and small States jealous of their own rights and powers and suspicious of any central national government contained only 4,000,000 people spread up and down a thousand miles of Atlantic seaboard barely connected by transportation or communication (so that national campaigns were impractical even if they had been thought desirable) believed, under the influence of such British political thinkers as Henry St John Bolingbroke, that political parties were mischievous if not downright evil, and felt that gentlemen should not campaign for public office (The saying was "The office should seek the man, the man should not seek the office."). • • • How, then, to choose a president without political parties, without national campaigns, and without upsetting the carefully designed balance between the presidency and the Congress on one hand and between the States and the federal government on the other? Origins of the Electoral College The...
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...Divided congress with great difficulty passing bills Primary reason: president is an integral part of the legislative process Appoint federal justices and government employees (e.g. heads of CIA and Federal Reserve) Enforce laws executive orders Order of the president without Congressional approval that has the force of law Only operates within the framework of an existing piece of legislation or constitutional power Order based on a certain interpretation Example: Harry Truman integrates the armed forces Ends segregation of blacks and whites in the army Issue pardons Electoral college There are two electoral colleges Electoral college & the House Same thing in Britain Candidates compete to win individual states (national popular vote not important) Each state is worth a certain number of voters (bigger states are worth more) Race to 270 votes – a candidate must win a majority of electoral votes – 270 is the magic number out of 538 total votes – if...
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...portraits of political leaders. It can only be inferred that the whole purpose of it was to help promote that leaders image and get the people to recognize it more so that if the time presented itself the people would vote or lean towards that leader’s perspectives and or campaign. I think that siding with Mary P. Ryan’s Antebellum Politics as Raucous Democracy would be most beneficial because it is the one essay that sounds mostly what is our democracy is like today. The idea of a democracy is where a system of government is ran by the whole population or all the...
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...Every four years, on the first Tuesday of November, American citizens are given the chance to cast a vote and elect a president whom will be responsible of representing the United States of America, appointing ambassadors to represent foreign countries, work out treaties and agreements as well as serve as the commander of chief for the armed forces. The election process begins in the spring prior to the year of an election with candidates announcing their intentions to run, this announcement launches their official campaigns of speeches and debates. To run as president, the rules are rather simple: he or she must be a natural-born citizen, at least 35 years of age and been a resident of the United States for at least 14 years. Anyone meeting...
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...One of the main barriers minor parties face is debate rules. Debates have formed a large part of the United States electoral process since the 1990s but for the majority of states parties must have cleared 15% in pre-debate opinion polls to take part. The debates are crucial for party publicity and grassroots support but are only traditionally open to the presidential and vice presidential candidates of the two main parties. To take part in the debates candidates also have to be on enough ballot cards in enough states to make it possible to win an electoral college majority, for independent third parties this is often difficult as it usually requires self-funding for registration fee's and the like, such as Ross Perot in 1996 who was a multi-millionaire and able to fund his own campaign and therefore representation on ballots in every state. Since it is often due to the publicity of the debates that parties gain gain funding these limitations tend to put minor parties on the back-foot even before the major campaign starts as they have limited resources and means of publicity to gain enough finance and support for both the ballot registration fees and the 15% in the election polls. The second limitation on third parties is the winner-takes-all lack of proportional representation in the electoral college. Proportional representation is virtually non-existent in the federal system and is rarely even found in the states. This complete lack of minor party representation means that...
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...Historical Essay: Confederation and Constitution By History 405 Professor Aimee James January 26th, 2015 Historical Essay: Confederation and Constitution Confederation and Constitution As Colonial America moved from civil disobedience to open war with Britain, the States, at the behest of the Colonial Congress, started drafting constitutions and in the process “became laboratories for constitutional experimentation” ( Keene 120). The need to ensure a strong union and to ensure that it was strong enough to deal with both internal and external issues drove the colonies to send delegates to Albany to draft the Articles of Confederation. Ratified in 1781, the Articles of Confederation framed a new United States of America. The Articles of Confederation did not create a national government, “but rather a firm league of friendship” (Keene 121). Ultimately a fear of recreating the issues that were driving them from British rule shaped the Articles of Confederation and created a weak government with little power. It setup a national legislature called Congress where each state had one vote. It had no power to levy taxes, regulate commerce or otherwise interfere with the States. It could create money and declare war or peace. Notably any changes or amendments required a unanimous vote of Congress and “because of its weaknesses, Alexander Hamilton and other delegates called for a convention to be held in Philadelphia to improve and amend the Articles” (Articles of confederation...
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...American Politics Final Exam Questions 1. In the design of the United States government, Congress was given the legislative power. It "makes the laws" for the nation. a. What procedure does the Constitution require for Congress to make law? Article I of the Constitution "all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives." The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process––legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers. First, any bill for raising money (such as by taxes or fees) must start out in the House. All bills must pass both houses of Congress in the exact same form. Bills that pass both houses are sent to the President. He can either sign the bill, in which case it becomes law, or he can veto it. In the case of a veto, the bill is sent back to Congress, and if both houses pass it by a two-thirds majority, the bill becomes law over the President's veto. b. Describe the legislative process utilized today, above and beyond the Constitutional requirements. The general process for making a bill into law is described in the Constitution. First, a bill needs to be drafted. You do not need to be a member of congress to draft a bill. For example lobbyists and other congressional staff can draft a bill, but only a member of congress can introduce legislation. Bills then get referred to standing committees. Once referred, the bill...
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...union had won, but the nation was still divided economically, politically and socially. The people, land and property of the South were devastated. Besides the challenge of readmitting the southern states into the union, there were plans made to reconstruct the defeated south. Reconstruction hinged on resolving the political, economic and social issues. The terms that the South had agreed to in order or rejoin the Union had an important impact on both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Republican Party took advantage of the south’s absence from Congress. The Radical Republicans from the north divided the Democratic Party after the victories in the elections of 1860 and 1864. Latter on the south was removed from the Electoral College. Both the Republicans and democratic leaders were fearful that readmitting the South would reunite the Democratic south and weaken the newly established stronger Republican Party. The Democrats in Congress passed a program that had a drastic impact on the economy. This legislation enforced tariffs, made railroad subsidies, reformed banking and currency operations. All these measures generally benefited Northern business leaders and industrialists. The North was afraid that these...
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... Marshall J. Goldsmith Who was my guest at the Literary Club, October 24, 2011 Some us recall a great 1986 film called “The Color of Money,” and no, cynics, it wasn’t about politics. That film earned Paul Newman the Oscar for Best Actor as a pool hustler and stakehorse, who enjoyed a glass or two of J.T.S. Brown Kentucky bourbon, my favorite beverage from college days. But, unless I’ve missed a documentary or foreign film along these lines, I haven’t yet seen a dramatization called “The Color of Politics.” Yes, there is such a thing as “The Politics of Color,” but as social commentary, not as a film title. “The Color of Politics” is equally real though, and has a long history. I first dabbled in the palette of politics on election eve, 2008, when I presented before the club on that occasion an essay I’d titled “One Collage Too Many,” painting a picture of the many problems inherent in the Electoral College system for electing American Presidents, an issue which still haunts us today. I began that essay by reflecting these thoughts, and I quote myself: “Light begets color. And colors fan emotions. Facts and emotions churn together, and the resulting political party leanings are reflected in a patchwork painting – a colored...
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