...Should Americans be Required to Vote? Why would a country that revels in the fact that they have more freedoms than most countries obligate their citizens to vote? It is clear that american citizens should not be forced to vote. People feel that if they were given a day off work on election day, they would be able to vote. Another way is if citizens were able to vote early. Should the eligible citizens of america be obligated to vote? There are three reasons why Americans should not be obligated to vote. First of all ignorant voters are dangerous,the fact that citizens do not participate as much shouldn't be masked, and the higher level education people receive the higher percentage of them will vote. One reason why Americans should not be required to vote is that ignorant voters are dangerous. Evidence supporting this reason is “must you vote?” new York times by randy Cohen. A quote that I found on this site explaining the dangers of ignorant voters is, “It is irresponsible to encourage the unaware to put their ignorance into action so aimlessly...you might as well urge the unpracticed to Rollerblade and use power tools simultaneously. At least they'd injure only themselves.” this evidence helps explain why Americans should not be required to vote because when the ignorant vote their vote could possibly be the vote that takes a...
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...of many Americans for different reasons. Each of these amendments has to due with giving people equal rights no matter what race or gender that they may be. These are all tremendous milestones in American history. First, the 13th amendment was passed in 1865 to end slavery. African Americans were no longer allowed to be considered as property. Instead, they became viewed as real people, and slavery was banned unless it was used as a form of punishment This amendment was passed because before and during the civil war, most northern citizens strongly stood against slavery. They thought it was unjust to make people work for long hours and to be treated unfairly. This amendment clearly and effectively signified that no American citizen could own slaves....
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...see it in books, on television, in the media; it is rapidly becoming a social norm. Given this trend of greater acceptance of gay marriage, the issue of whether to legalize same-sex marriage naturally arises. Massachusetts has led the way by legalizing gay marriage. Responding to this example, some states have taken steps towards accepting gay marriage while others are considering laws and constitutional amendments banning gay marriage within state borders. President George Bush has recently proposed a ban on gay marriage in the U.S. Constitution (Hulse). If Americans carefully examine the situation, however, they should all be able to understand the importance of making same-sex marriage legal in the United States. Those opposing same-sex marriage claim that by allowing this act, marriages everywhere will lose their honor and validity (Kurtz). Marriages between a man and a woman would lose their special importance, these opponents argue, if the definition of marriage is expanded to include same-sex couples as well. The test of time has proven this fear pointless. For several years, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands have allowed gay marriage without any signs of damage to heterosexual couples. Social life in these countries continues unchanged, and no dramatic increases have appeared in the divorce rate (Dilanian). One cannot argue that the so-called traditional marriages in Europe between a man and a woman have been made less valuable. Others seeking to ban gay marriage...
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...Being an American citizen comes with many rights, one of those being the right to bear arms. Richard Henry Lee, one of our founding fathers, put it best when he said, “ To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, how to use them.” Since the very beginning of our country, guns have been an important part of our lives. Our founding fathers understood the importance of the second amendment and like them, I firmly believe that the second amendment is key to upholding our freedom. Under no circumstances should the government have the right to disarm the American people. The second amendment was put into place to give us control of our own defense; it is meant to give us the opportunity...
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...In 1975 the District of Columbia pass the Firearms Control Regulations Act which prohibited guns at home from being functional firearms and also made it nearly impossible to own a gun. This created conflict with the second amendment in the constitution, which states “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” It can be seen this law D.C. passed violates the constitution due to citizens not being able to have a functional firearm at their home. This caused the case of District of Columbia v. Heller to arise. Dick Anthony Heller, a police officer in D.C., applied for a one-year license that he would use to own a handgun at his place of residence. He was then denied the license. Heller sued D.C. on the account of not upholding his second amendment right. The district court’s response was it was not valid and it was dismissed. It was appealed by Heller and The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decided that making people have...
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...young French explorer sets sale to the New World to study the American prison system. However, this is only simply a story to mislead others from his real objective. Alexis De Tocqueville is traveling to the New World to secretly study the great American Democracy. The purpose of this you might ask? The French must better understand American behaviors in how they feel and act, upon the essential nature of their freedoms. The French must take these learning and place them into their own practices to ensure they have a long last Democracy. In the Introduction chapter of “Democracy in America” by Alexis De Tocqueville and Richard D. Heffner, Heffner goes into length to describe all of the extravagant and detailed descriptions Tocqueville gives about the way Americans feel and act, due to the essential nature of freedoms from their Democracy. I have organized this paper into six different paragraphs that will be described in the following: First, an opening paragraph will let you know what literature I am referencing to when discussing this topic....
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...principles and values of the American Republic; how they were rooted into society and their reflections of the social conditions of the period. With the occurrence of the Bicentennial in 1976, Greene takes the chance to look at the viability of these original principles. The fundamental question that Greene concentrates on is whether the principles of 1776 have any relevance at this moment, if social and political conditions have not changed so drastically as to render the political system that had been developed between 1776 and 1789 entirely out of date or in need of revision. During the Revolutionary period, everything seemed to operate and promote political knowledge (55). The principles of civil liberties became the prevailing sentiments of the whole body of American citizens (55). Gordon S. Wood, Pulitzer prize winner for history in 1992 for his book titled The American Revolution1, called the analysis of the Revolutionary principles and characteristics as the “American science of politics.” Founding Fathers had a distrust in human nature. Human beings were imperfect and shaped by passion, prejudice, vanity, and interest which made it difficult to resist...
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...the battlefield plaster front pages of mass media. Radio stations constantly deliver updates to the homes of citizens. Currently, broadcasting stations air a round the clock television updates on prevalent issues. At a time when technology limited forms of communication, newspapers accumulated a majority of the responsibility for informing the public. Surprisingly, America as a nation, usually well informed and considerate of global issues and situations, left the Holocaust, the genocide of over six million Jews, Gypsies and handicapped across Germany and Poland, in the shadows of the concurrent war. Beginning in 1939, European countries engaged in a war that America clearly seemed unprepared to participate in. When America finally entered the war, the domestic concerns it faced at the time held precedence, even though it received news of the atrocities in Europe. The Holocaust, initially neglected as front-cover news, now holds a major concern and memory in American history. Since the start of World War II, strengthened and advanced reactions to the horrors of The Holocaust have ensued from simultaneously increasing publicity. As war broke out across Europe, Americans laid back, hoping to continue isolationist efforts. Still recovering from the Depression, newspaper companies held a large monopoly of the public information distribution (Holocaust). American citizens simply remained unaware that millions of people were suffering from discrimination and hatred. The New York...
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...Schools have always been the foundation of American society and teachers the masons. However, the motive of the educational system has been scrutinized since its inception. There are many theories, even today about its purpose. School rules, critical thinking skills, and everything else that schools facilitate and teachers teach are societal aspirations. These are the goals that are taught, in order to reach the underlying purpose. The purpose of the educational system is the same today as it was when our country was founded. It is political in its nature; it is to produce citizens that are capable of maintaining and participating in our democracy. From its inception, the American school system became a tool, a tool for our society's...
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...Furthermore, John Lewis argues using a rhetorical question to emphasize that people without rights would not favor the Civil Rights Bill because the bill itself would not live up to its role of ensuring rights to every citizen. This would be useless not to include Title III, which would protect the citizens who are attacked by the state and its laws. To illustrate this idea, the spokesman describes,“...there is nothing to protect the young children and old women who must face police dogs and fire hoses in the South while they engage in peaceful demonstrations” (para 2). In making this comment, Lewis urges the audience to feel sympathy for the citizens who are being discriminated daily due to their skin tone. Also, he desires to motivate the...
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...that left many people dead and many fearful of the future. The President of the United States at the time, George W. Bush, addressed the nation shortly after the attacks in his “9/11 Address to the Nation,” which was aired across the country to ease any fears amongst citizens and to assure that he was qualified to handle such a dire situation. In his speech, Bush uses organization, tone, and diction to achieve his purpose of connecting to his audience on a more personal level. In his Address, Bush discusses the events of 9/11 in a chronological and orderly fashion, helping...
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...Sanchez1 Professor Judith K. Gooch American Government 2301/2 6 August 2013 Some Truths Are Not Self-Evident In the article "Some Truths Are Not Self-Evident", the author; Howard Zinn's main point is that The United States of America's Constitution did not really do nothing much for their citizens, instead the citizens were and are the ones who have had and will have the courage to get their rights seen by the country. I actually do agree with Zinn’s opinion, The biggest role The United States Of America’s Constitution plays in citizens actions is to write down laws, However The Constitution is a document that has just a little of importance at the time of talking about justice, liberty, and democracy among citizens in The United States of America. Howard Zinn focused on five main issues of justice and liberty that lead to his conclusion.Those five issues are the matter of racial equality, free speech, economic justice, sexual equality, and when war approaches. When he mentioned racial equality he focused on black people. This issue was a huge problem in the United states back in time and it has decreased as of now but, not only among black people but colored people as well. Zinn mentions different movements that were taken by people; citizens from the country to abolish slavery. Thanks to those social movements laws were created, like the fourteenth and fifteenth Amendments. The actions taken by the citizens in the United States were outside the ...
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...Thalia Capilla July 26, 2014 POSC146: Mass Media and Public Opinion Thalia Capilla POSC 146 Justin Nelson Downfall of News Coverage In Depicting War The ideal news coverage is a mirror image of reality, thousands of Americans tune in to their local or national news channel for quality coverage and accuracy. In the 1960’s Vietnam became the first war to be televised, resulting in a large disapproval rating on the war. However, the American people saw the truth and gave their opinion. Today the media is nowhere near the ideal news coverage, being characterized as corporate, concentrated and conglomerate. News Media is a profit making enterprise owned by a few companies. So what changed? How did the media evolve into something so filtered by the government? In this Literature Review I will cover how international affairs and war coverage quality has drastically declined to fit corporate news norms. It sacrifices quality over quantity, framing the American people. News media in a democracy should provide a forum for diverse views and provide the people with the truth of what is happening around the world, (McLeod 2009). That is what I would like shed light on in this paper. News framing, agenda setting and priming are broadly examined by Scheufelel and Tewksbury (2007) to see how all three are related and what the potential relationships can infer about the effects of mass media. This is an important analysis as these three components of the subtle effects model can...
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...Who knew Arizona would discriminate against tanned people? A political cartoon titled “Anglozana Illegal Tan Block” was illustrated by Matson of St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In this composition the center is dominated by a “Tan Block” tube, standing on its lid. To the top left of the tube “What good is it being American…” is typed in all black bolded lettering. Continuing the sentence “if you don’t LOOK legal?” is in the bottom right corner of the composition, with the word “LOOK” in all capital letters. The background is a solid white to help emphasize all the other elements in the cartoon. Focusing back onto the “Tan Block” tube, middle of the composition, the dominant colors of the tube are a burnt orange and red. Starting from the top, in all white capital letters, “ANGLOZONA” is written across the top of the tube. Below the white letters there is an image in a circle. In this image there is a green Saguaro cactus wearing lady liberty's crown. The green cactus is holding on one side a torch and the other a sign....
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...Republic of South Vietnam, known most commonly as the Vietnam war. The American government presented communism as an atrocity in need of eradication, and thus when the war first arose in 1954, the US supported the Republic of South Vietnam. US president, Dwight D. Eisenhower used posters, charismatic speeches, and shiny memorials and ceremonies to allure American citizens into fighting the war. Such mesmerizing propaganda...
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