Democracy, Majority Rule FRQ

1) The U.S. Constitution was written with the goal of creating a successful government. To have a successful government the constitution has to protect the people and the branches from loosing or gaining too much power.
a. To keep the people happy they have to feel like they have a say in what happens within their government. Originally this was fulfilled by the legislative branch. The House of Representatives is the part of the government most closely tied to the citizens. This is because representatives are directly elected by the people and have a short term length. That way if our representative is not supporting what we believe in we can elect someone new. Because the elects districts are moderately small we feel closer to them and trust them to represent us.

b.  The government is responsible for limiting majority rule. Two ways in which they do this are federalism and Supreme Court Justice terms. These two things protect different groups. For example, federalism keeps the government from gaining too much power by creating layers of government local, state and federal. These layers also make it difficult to pass laws quickly, protecting citizens from change they don't know about.  Supreme Court Justice terms on the other hand keep the government from loosing too much power to the people. Judges are nominated by the president and elected by the senate, preventing one branch from gaining too much power, but keeping the power of the law to government officials.

c. As decades pass the government becomes increasingly democratic. Primary elections and  increased sufferage are two advancements that have made our government more democratic in the last 100 years. Primary elections allow the people a greater voice in who the candidates will be in the next election. This is a big change from the caucus system where the party's held all the power and only government members had the power to elect candidates. There are also more people who can vote today as a result of the expansion of suffrage. In the last 100 years the voting population went from being all white landowning men to all races and sexes. More voters mean a greater pool of opinions and therefor more representation.

Money in Campaigns

Describe the significance of money in in a modern presidential election campaign.  How does the government regulate the fund-rasiing and expenditures of presidential campaigns?  Is the government regulation adequate? Explain

      Money rules the world of politics. And the modern presidential campaign. Tv advertising alone surpassed two billion in 2012. Without this money candidates would not be able to campaign like they do. So where does this money come from? Supporters, many through 501-C4's so that you can not see who gave what. This can be an issue because government favors come into question. The government does very little to regulate fund raising. The government does put caps on amounts of money one can give a candidate. But there are ways around this such as bundling. The government could constantly regulate money sources but this is a lot of work and our government seems to have bigger things on their hands.

The New Center

The center of American politics is not a waffling group that doesn't know what they want. They identify with one side or the other based on their beliefs but also hold values of both sides. Using the esquire quiz I was placed as a minivan moderate, left leaning. I would agree with the above statement because I know where I stand on my beliefs and I do not waffle on that. Over half of the center consider themselves to be moderate but they are fairly evenly split into three parts republican, democrat and independent.  The middle consists of slightly more democrats than republicans.  The middle is generally more democratic in the fact that they think all people should be able to live above the poverty line on minimum wage and that we should help people who really need it, but not everyone. The majority of the middle thinks that the constitution can not provide guidance for today's issues. I agree with this and answered similarly but slightly more conservatively in saying that the constitution provides guidence on some issues but needs updating. The center is also generally not religious and believe that religion should not be tied to government. I think this is one of the reasons I am more left leaning, because my values are not at all tied to faith. Like me most of the middle think gay marriage should be legal and that marriage is between two people who love each other. The middle also wants a change in foreign policy. It is really interesting to see how you fit in with the rest of the U.S. I was not too surprised at my result but I expected to be a little more moderate.

Public Opinion Polls

Are public opinion polls a benefit or a curse to American politics?  What influence do they have on campaigns?  On governing?  What do critics point to as the key weaknesses of public opinion polls? Do you agree?  Explain?

I believe that public opinion polls are both a good and a bad thing in the world of American politics. Polls allow candidates to know what the people want based on the answers of a select group, on topics such as age, race, political status, and feelings on certain issues. With this information candidates can campaign to attract certain groups like single-issue groups who often determine elections. Critics point to this as the weakness of public opinion polls. However, polls can also be a good thing because they let leaders know what the people want and need from their country. I think that in the long run polls are a good thing because they show what different citizens want.