...Govt-2301-WS3 What makes us so different? Understanding Political Ideology through Partisanship People today think that it doesn’t matter how you vote, the outcome will always be the same because the Democratic and GOP parties are run by corporations. Some think that in order to break away from the special interests and influences, there should be a strong third party and that party with a different platform is the Libertarian Party. Historically the main two parties were not much different. In the beginning both parties believed that “men (not big government) was to rule them” (The Fundamental Differences Between Republican and Democrats). There was a mutual desire for individual freedom. Currently it seems that their fundamental beliefs have changed. The Democratic Party wants to increase government involvement in the lives of the American public, whereas the Republicans would like to see decreased national government and have each state govern themselves (The Fundamental Differences Between Republican and Democrats). The Libertarians seem to want to get back to what the founding fathers envisioned. Each party has very strong convictions on the topics that confront America today. The hottest topic facing the nation is Same Sex Marriage. Since the beginning the Democrats have defended Civil Rights and supported the expansion of opportunities for all. They fight to end all forms of discrimination, but this is an uphill battle. “We support marriage equality...
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...stating that American politics are very biased, and other agreements are made claiming polarized minds are caused from biological influences. But when it comes to who is guilty for creating this separation, there are many disagreements. American people have come to the general consensus that political parties are very biased. This causes an extreme sense of partisanship in daily arguments and other political conversations because people tend to take their stances so seriously, even if they do...
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...This partisanship started to become more pronounced after the House Democratic majority of the 1930s through the 1970s, once populated by both Southern conservatives and Northern liberals, lost almost all its Southern conservative members, leaving a more polarized left-of-center party. Because of this realignment, the Republican Party, , became even more distinctly conservative. This ideological sorting extended to voters, activists, and elected officials, creating many seats in the House that were predetermined to be safe for one party or the other. Therefore, the only opposition from these seats came from ideological extremists in their parties moving Democrats further left and Republicans further right. The resulting sharp partisan differences created an atmosphere where legislative ends could justify any procedural means. Examples of this extremist partisanship can be observed in both chambers of Congress, such as the arm-twisting seen in the House to pass the Medicare bill, as well as the Senate employing methods such as exploiting the budget reconciliation process to avoid filibusters – thereby setting the odds of the bill passing in the majority party’s...
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...Representatives and the Senate. This arrangement for the legislative branch of government was one of the compromises devised by the founding fathers at the Philadelphia convention. This essay will discuss whether Congress is the broken branch or not. The idea of increased partisanship as a result of ideological polarisation of the parties since the 1980s is an argument that supports the above statement that the Congress is a broken branch. In 1960 the South was intact, whether you were black, white, liberal or conservative you would vote Democrats, so they were sometimes known as yellow dog democrats meaning that even if the Democrats put up a yellow dog as an election candidate they would still vote democrats. In the 1960 election, of the 106 members of the House of Representatives from the South, 99 were Democrats. All 22 southern senators were also Democrats. However the South disintegrated as statistics from the 1992 and 1996 election show that the Democrats could not even win the South with a presidential ticket made up of 2 southerners, Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Partisanship has been fuelled by the growth of partisan media outlets, gerrymandering and ideological interest groups. The increased role of partisanship has also led to an increase in party votes. The 2 mainstream parties in America, Democrats and Republicans have very different views of many major issues. For example where Republican believe in strong national defence, the Democrats believe that they should advocate...
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...Assess the positive and the negative aspects of the United States political framework based on the ‘separation of powers’. The United States is a presidential democracy; its political framework is based on the separation of powers between the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches of government. This is in contrast to a parliamentary democracy where there is a fusion of powers between branches of government 1. It is often argued that a parliamentary system of government based on a fusion of powers is a more effective form of government, particularly when legislating. Although this may be the case, the US political system has overcome issues faced by most parliamentary democracies such as elective dictatorships and poor scrutiny of the executive. This has been due to the structure of the US political system based on the separation of powers. In this essay I will assess the positive and the negative aspects of the US political system. I will evaluate the advantages and disadvantages the separation of powers has brought to the US system of government. I will first assess the positive aspects of the US political system. I will then discuss the negative aspects of the US political system, finally drawing a conclusion. The ‘separation of powers is a central structural feature of the United States constitution’ 2. The US political system was designed first and foremost to prevent tyranny, something the founding fathers still feared even after America had gained...
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...Scholar Gil Troy discusses America’s early leaders George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy who tried to forge compromises and maintain civility. Gil Troy characterizes our successful Presidents as “leading from the center” as said in the reading. Troy says “history suggests what might work and what will fail”. Gil Troy reminds us of the finest traditions of presidential leadership from our nation’s past. In Gil Troy eyes, these Presidents not only succeeded because of their political visions, but because of their moderation. He discusses partisanship in the presidency and its effect on the country. And George Washington who mediated between the competing visions of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton,...
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...These elections often determine the winner of a specific election because either the candidate is running unopposed or the district is solidly republican or democrat. And then from there strategists and advisers craft the message and political agenda they are supposed to hold to (unless they're a Kenyan Muslim, obviously). This political message is usually designed to mobilize the party's base, or hardcore voters of one party or another and to hopefully get the independents to vote for their chosen candidate too. This part of the process is largely seen as partisan politics leading to the polarized state of our current government. Many people see partisanship as unnecessarily divisive however many would argue that is the partisanship that keeps politicians...
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...the public that identify as Republicans will have negative evaluations on Obama and will disagree with his stance on certain issues. Additionally, the portion of the public that identify as a Democrat will give Romney negative evaluations and will be against his viewpoint on policy issues. It is important to note that the differences between Republicans and Democrats evaluations of the candidates and their attitude toward certain policy issues, will not be merely based on political expertise but instead the public’s feelings toward the opposing party. This is because, as Hetherington and Rudolph pointed out, the public does not know too much about politics, so they go off their perception of the other party, and this can be blinded by partisanship. Measures To get an understanding on how the public view the 2012 presidential candidate, respondents were asked a series of questions that relate to evaluating the candidates character traits. The questions asked were: whether the candidate could be trusted, does the candidate have the right experience, will the candidate be a weak leader, and does the candidate care about people like them. The questions would go on to be factors for measuring the personal attributes of the candidates. These are great indicators because the questions pertaining to whether the candidate would be a weak leader and their experience are especially important for determining whether the public believes the candidate has essential leadership skills to be president...
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...The best studied case of a opinion information is that of party identification, and most young people identify with your parents political party. As time progresses and as they get older, they become more independent. Young voters have always had a weaker sense of partisanship, But the decline in partisanship has occurred at all age levels. The meaning of partisanship is unclear in most families because there are liberal and conservative Democrats as well as liberal and conservative Republicans. Clear political ideologies are communicated to small proportions of children raised in families where politics is a dominant topic of conversation and political views are strongly held. Religious traditions affect families. Catholic families are somewhat liberal on economic issues than white protestant ones. Jewish families are much more liberal all around then Catholics and Protestants. There are two theories why this is. The first has to do with the social status of religious groups in America. For example Catholics and Jews were often poor and discriminated against...
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...“Exploiting people's emotions of fear, envy and anxiety is not hope, it's not change, it's partisanship. We don't need partisanship. We don't need demagoguery, we need solutions,” -Paul Ryan. In a society it is essential that we recognize how fear can be used as a tool, as demonstrated in Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. In the book, a group of boys are deserted on an uninhabited island, in which a new society rises and then crumbles through the means of savagery. The Lord of the Flies presents an allegory which warn us that people will use fear as a means to gain power, destroy any attempts of reason, and bring society into a perpetual state of chaos. Throughout history, there are many people who have sought to use fear upon a group of people...
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...Each year several social service organizations issue reports relating to the state of Black America. While issues such as affordable housing, jobs, crime and challenging family dynamics are generally discussed, the poor quality of the education received by far too many African American children continues to be a focal point found in these reports. The facts don’t lie. According to John Hopkins University, 32 percent of African-American students drop out of high school nationally – 15 percentage points higher than their White counterparts. In urban school districts with a high concentration of low-income and minority students, the gap is widened and graduation rates are even lower. According to the Schott Report on Black Males in Public Education, African American males have the lowest graduation rates out of any other race in 38 of our nation’s 50 states, a 76 percent majority. For over a decade, African American students have been the least likely to obtain a high school diploma out of every racial or ethnic group in the United States. Additionally the achievement gap between African American and White students has consistently grown or stayed stagnant nationally with white students outperforming their African American peers up to 30 points on standardized tests. Not only are African American students struggling in high school, but are ill prepared to succeed in higher education. Nearly 63 percent of African American students enrolled in a full-time four-year college...
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...Domestically, henominatedthe firstsachemrightof the U.S. Supreme Court, John Jay (1745-1829),marka billestablishingthe firstpublicbankandsetup his own presidentialcabinet. His two men whoveryfirmlyon thepartyof the federalauthority. Hamiltonaidedarobustfocalauthority, while Jeffersonfeaturedstrongerquality'perpendicular. Washingtonthinksthatbranchingprospectwasexactingfor thetoneof theuntriedcontrol, but he washard putat what thespeechas an emerging partisanship." According to BBC, In 1783, with aharmonytrackprognosticbetween Great Britain and the U.S., Washington,creditedhe had done hisreverence, gave up hischargeof thehere andrestoreto Mount Vernon,purporton resuming hisanimationas agentstenantandclasspeople. However, in 1787, he soughttoregardthe Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia andheightthebodytoconscriptiontherenovatedenactment. The first presidentialelectionwas held on January 7, 1789, and Washingtondwellingconveniently. John Adams (1735-1826), whoholdtheassistance-biggestscalarofdoom, became thepeople's firstblemishguardian. The 57-year-antiqueWashington wasinauguratedon April 30, 1789, in New York...
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...Unit 3 – Survey Sample Size Marietta Bloise American InterContinental University Abstract What you’re going to view are three different groups which took polls. You are going to see how many people were contacted. How did the pollsters contact people for the polls? They are going to use the information for real estate, what group of people each political party will need to reach out to for the midterm elections. How generations have changed with thoughts toward marriage, religion, and etc. then the dangerous habits in America. Introduction Entertainment Survey “The Ipsos poll conducted Nov. 29-30, 2012. The survey is a nationally representative sample of via Ipsos’ U.S. online omnibus. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate within +3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population of adults in the United States been polled”. (Cast of "Honey Boo Boo" Tops List of Worst Neighbors in 2012; Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton Named Most Desirable Celebrity Neighbors for 2013: Most Americans Do Not Want a Celebrity Neighbor, According to 6th Annual Zillow Celebrity Neighbor Survey PR Newswire [New York] 27 Dec 2012.) Basically the survey is stating no one wants to be neighbors of realty TV show Honey Boo Boo. “Forty five percent of adults do not want to live by celebrities, compared to last year survey which was 42%”. The most desirable...
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...How to get back on track You don’t know this about me but I was 14 years old and won 2nd place in the regional Chess competition along with 3rd place in the state and 8th place in nationals (that’s 8th in 100 competitors). What I learned (beside that I am awesome) was that everything in life if a chess game and should be treated as such. Along the way I learned project managing and learned that everything in life requires management and a manager for it. So combining those concepts you get that everything in life needs to be managed with grace, foresight, risk and timing. Below is what my Thesis was for my BS called “Playing the Game Called Management” Got an “A” by the way and inducted into the tech honors society. But that’s another story. The Question There are things we need to establish to try to fix things. One was recognizing the causes of which we already mentioned in the email. In chess that’s viewing the board and the player the environment all causes to the end games all potentially harmful and none of it on your side. This is handled in PM by openly set the goals and make sure that they are understood. In chess that is to yourself in PM that is to the group. This would not be to re-write the project by this date. That’s not a goal, that’s a want/need. It means to lay out what are the real goals for each party (to look good, make money, do the job and go home, do a good job, learn etc.). This is kind of dirty but so is detoxing after a bad drug habit...
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...engage in their civic duty of voting; only then can a proper governing body be chosen to represent the will of the majority. Abraham Lincoln got to the core of democracy when he stated, “the government of the people, by the people and for the people.” In the last 50 years of Canadian history we have begun to see a decline in voter turnout; ranging from 80% of citizens voting in 1962, gradually dwindling to 59.1% in the year 2008 (Dickerson, Flanagan & O'Neill, 2010). It is important to understand why citizens vote the way they do in order to determine what may or may not be successful in regards to winning a majority government; factors that influence the voter’s choices include socio-demographic characteristics, beliefs and values, partisanship and confidence in political leaders. There is a great deal of debate surrounding which policies could increase voter based participation in democratic systems, but the most irrefutably successful policies would be those applied in systems of proportional representation ("Statistics by country," 2011). Voting is part of Canadian civic duty; unfortunately not all Canadians exercise their right to vote. Over the past 20 years the Canadian voter turnout has been on a steady decline, from 75.3% turnout in 1988, to 59.1% voter turnout in 2008. Even more specifically, the decrease in voters is a result of the younger generation not taking part in the electoral process ("Falling voter turnout," 2006). Elections Canada released information...
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