POL Final Assignment

Assignment: Due 12/17 Choose a passage from JFK, Reagan, or Obama, write it out and explain what it means.

The Portion of Text I chose was from President Kennedy's Inauguration speech since no specific choice pertaining to the three presidents were given

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This we pledge and more."

To me JFk was saying during this portion of the speech that he has plans for stronger america. He wants everyone to know that when it comes to Americas core which is liberty and freedom for all that he and America would go to any means to preserve these principles set down by our founding fathers. This was one of my favorite inaugural speeches and one of the most powerful in my opinion.

POL Assignment 11

Assignment Due 12/10 : Choose a passage from Wilson, or Roosevelt, write out the passage and interpret it and explain why you chose this passage.

Go to the link for the The Great Depression. Choose a passage from this website and write it out and interpret it and explain why you chose this passage. Also choose a picture or painting and explain the content of piece and how it relates to class.

 

The Passage I chose is from Roosevelt's second bill of rights. The passage reads as follows: I do not think that any of us Americans can be content with mere survival. Sacrifices that we and our allies are making impose upon us all a sacred obligation to see to it that out of this war we and our children will gain something better than mere survival.

 

I think Roosevelt is trying to say that survival is not the only thing to be gained out of this war and due to all the sacrifices made by our own people and allies we need to gain more than just survival to justify the lives we have lost.

I chose this passage because I liked the way It sounded as a motivation piece and I think it greatly complies with the status of the war they needed to have moral victories as much as physical ones.

 

The passage I chose from the great depression website is as follows: Almost all nations sought to protect their domestic production by imposing tariffs, raising existing ones, and setting quotas on foreign imports. The effect of these restrictive measures was to greatly reduce the volume of international trade: by 1932 the total value of world trade had fallen by more than half as country after country took measures against the importation of foreign goods.

 

This passage is very straight forward and to me and because of the economic failing foreign trade was ceased and so the revenue generated from foreign trade would also die out. I chose this passage because I found it interesting because I feel that foreign trade would help keep the economy more stable but apparently the same was not thought back then.

 

 

 

This picture shows of the struggle of trying to secure a job during the time of the great depression. I choose this picture because to me it relates to class by showing a piece of the time period and the economy has its roots in politics somehow someway which is what this class is about

POL Assignment 10

Assignment Due 12/3: Choose a passage from the Gettysburg Address or the Second Inaugural Address. Write out the passage and interpret its meaning and explain why you chose it.

The Passage I chose is from Lincolns Gettysburg Address.

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."


What I think this passage means to me is that when the four fathers of our country founded this new land  they wanted to build a foundation for future generations that would be built on the foundation of equal rights and freedoms for anyone willing to live in the new land. However now we are in a war and a war against our own brothers in order to keep alive the foundation this country was built on watch it fall in battle

I chose this excerpt from the Gettysburg Address because it states in only a few lines what the civil war was about we started out one way but people decided along the way that it was alright to take these privileges away and only keep them for ourselves but that goes entirely against what this country started on and now this war will be the model to see if country's of freedom can exist or if they were meant to fail.

POL assignment 9

Assignment Due 11/26: Choose a passage from Lincoln's speech on the Dred Scott case, interpret it and explain how it relates to class.

From the African-American Odyssey website, from the Civil War section, choose two parts, and summarize and explain them. If they include pictures, copy and paste the photo or image in your paper.


 That decision declares two propositions—first, that a Negro cannot sue in the U.S. Courts; and secondly, that Congress cannot prohibit slavery in the Territories. It was made by a divided court—dividing differently on the different points. Judge Douglas does not discuss the merits of the decision; and, in that respect, I shall follow his example, believing I could no more improve on McLean and Curtis, than he could on Taney. 

In this passage from Lincolns speech he makes a statement at the results of the case in almost a sarcastic tone. He points out a few things wrong with the constitution 1 being that a black man cannot sue anywhere in the united states and the second being that congress cannot prohibit slavery the court room was divided. I think this relates to class because this class focuses on the political system and this was a case of politics and morals. Especially since this would be one of the many things leading to the abolition of slavery.

To Union Lines and Freedom

Photographed by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, this is an image of African Americans seeking to gain freedom behind Union lines. It was taken in the main eastern theater of the war during the second battle of Bull Run in 1862. This picture is very self explanatory its just of  a person trying to cross union lines because usually it meant if you crossed the line you would have your freedom  because not every state was pro slavery. This print is based on David Gilmore Blythe's painting of Lincoln writing the Emancipation Proclamation. Blythe imagined the President in a cluttered study at work on the document near an open window draped with a flag. His left hand is placed on a Bible that rests on a copy of the Constitution in his lap. The scales of justice appear in the left corner, and a railsplitter's maul lies on the floor at Lincoln's feet. This is a picture of Lincoln as hes getting ready to finish his emancipation document.  I think this relates because of the subject matter After David G. Blythe. President Lincoln Writing the Proclamation of Freedom, January 1, 1863. Cincinnati: Ehrgott and Forbriger, 1864. Lithograph. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction Number: LC-USZC4-1425 (4-22)

Timothy O'Sullivan. Fugitive African Americans Fording the Rappahannock River. Rappahannock, Virginia, August 1862. Copyprint. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction Number: LC-B8171-518 (4-4)

Pol Assignment 7

Assignment (Due 11/12): Choose one passage from Thoreau write out the passage and interpret them and explain why you chose them.

Go to the link for African-American Odyssey and under the section Abolition choose two topics from part 1 and part 2, research these topics, and summarize them and explain how they relate to the readings by Thoreau.


Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. 

To me this passage is saying is that the government can show it has no problem taking advantage of its own people and the situations they might be in. If a problem arises that could somehow benefit the government than the government should allow it. The government however does not help situations that could use help such as education, freedom of all its people, trouble in the wild west. Had the government in fact not got in the way people on their own would have accomplished so much more.

The two readings I chose from part one were: plea for the suppression of the slave trade, and Christian Arguments against slavery. In christian Arguments against slavery in 1737 Benjamin Lay printed an article stating  that there are people claiming to be holiest of Christians not realizing that slavery is a sin.

The article plea for the suppression of the slave trade was an article talking about the many reasons slave trade needed to be abolished while also stating that the slave trade is part guilty on all sides not just Americans but people all over the Atlantic.

I think they relate to Thoreau's article in a sense because they are talking about how the government can help but they don't and let problems persist and slavery would be similar because it a problem the government doesn't control and these people don't see it that way so people are trying to take the action that the government refuses to take.  

Pol Assignment 6

Assignment (Due 10/29): Choose a passage from one of the Anti-Federalist writers, write out the passage and give your interpretation of the passage, then explain what this passage means to you or why you chose it.

Go to the link for "American Politics." Look up the section "Federalism" and explain the differences between horizontal and vertical federalism. 

The Article I'm Choosing is from the writer Centinel AKA Samuel Bryan. it was from the first article he wrote and it reads as follows:

Permit one of yourselves to put you in mind of certain liberties and privileges secured to you by the constitution of this commonwealth, and to beg your serious attention to his uninterested opinion upon the plan of federal government submitted to your consideration, before you surrender these great and valuable privileges up forever. Your present frame of government, secures to you a right to hold yourselves, houses, papers and possessions free from search and seizure, and therefore warrants granted without oaths or affirmations first made, affording sufficient foundation for them, whereby any officer or messenger may be commanded or required to search your houses or seize your persons or property, not particularly described in such warrant, shall not be granted. Your constitution further provides "that in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, the parties have a right to trial by jury, which ought to be held sacred." It also provides and declares. "that the people have a right of FREEDOM OF SPEECH, and of WRITING and PUBLISHING their sentiments, therefore THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS OUGHT NOT TO BE RESTRAINED.

To me this article is saying to the reader that before they accept the newly reformed federal government they should stop and remember the laws and freedoms they have now stating basically that ones the federal government takes effect they will lose more than they gained. HE goes on to say that privacy will no longer be respect that as of now before the new policies kick in yourself, home, papers, and everything you own is free from government search and seizure without a consented warrant. Now officers will be able to search through all you own without consent and before this matter could be taken to court now it will just be a law. The writer feels a lot of rights given by the constitution to be more in control of the government when in fact they are suppose to b free rights.

Second assignment:
Vertical Federalism means the interactions between the 50 states in terms of government issues. The Government in each of the 50 states all interact with each other and have to come up with reasoning's and solutions together. All the power is divided between the states in terms of many of the countries polices. The difference between that and Horizontal Federalism is Horizontal Federalism has a central government in charge of all the policy dealings and situations however amongst the government are different branches and houses each with their own specific task.

Pol Assignment 5

Assignment (Due 10/22): Choose one passage from Madison and one from Hamilton and write out the passage and interpret it, follow the same format as previous assignments. 

Federalist Paper #52 by James Madison

A representative of the United States must be of the age of twenty-five years; must have been seven years a citizen of the United States; must, at the time of his election, be an inhabitant of the State he is to represent; and, during the time of his service, must be in no office under the United States. Under these reasonable limitations, the door of this part of the federal government is open to merit of every description, whether native or adoptive, whether young or old, and without regard to poverty or wealth, or to any particular profession of religious faith.

Federalist Paper #8 by Alexander Hamilton

War between the States, in the first period of their separate existence, would be accompanied with much greater distresses than it commonly is in those countries where regular military establishments have long obtained. The disciplined armies always kept on foot on the continent of Europe, though they bear a malignant aspect to liberty and economy, have, notwithstanding, been productive of the signal advantage of rendering sudden conquests impracticable, and of preventing that rapid desolation which used to mark the progress of war prior to their introduction. The art of fortification has contributed to the same ends. The nations of Europe are encircled with chains of fortified places, which mutually obstruct invasion. Campaigns are wasted in reducing two or three frontier garrisons, to gain admittance into an enemy’s country. Similar impediments occur at every step, to exhaust the strength and delay the progress of an invader. Formerly, an invading army would penetrate into the heart of a neighboring country almost as soon as intelligence of its approach could be received; but now a comparatively small force of disciplined troops, acting on the defensive, with the aid of posts, is able to impede, and finally to frustrate, the enterprises of one much more considerable. The history of war, in that quarter of the globe, is no longer a history of nations subdued and empires overturned, but of towns taken and retaken; of battles that decide nothing; of retreats more beneficial than victories; of much effort and little acquisition.

The First Article I Chose is Article 52 written by James Madison in regards to the house of representatives. It talks about the requirements needed to be member of the house. some of those requirements are to be of certain age. To live in the state you wish to represent. you must also not already be in some type of government office as well as have been a citizen for a certain number of years. As long as the requirements are met nothing else matters in joining. no matter how young or old. No matter what type of background or experience, anyone fitting the requirements can try for the house.

The Second Article I chose was article 8 written by Alexander Hamilton in regards to consequences of war between states. I think from what I gather is that Hamilton is saying war between states would be pointless. Its not like a war between countries that allow people to prepare invade and to prepare to defend. A war between states would not allow for such tine ad before people could invade the people on the defend would already be ready for it. Not only that but when you go to war with other countries leaves the damage and remains wherever the war was fought. If you bring war between two neighboring states both would likely suffer damage and then when war would end you would stull be neighbors. There would be little benefit on war between states.

POL Assignment 4

Assignment: Due 10/8 Choose one Article from the Constitution and choose a specific Section and a specific Clause or short paragraph (for example Article 1 Section 8 Clause 5). Write out the clause, interpret it, and explain why you chose this passage.

Choose an article from either Roll Call or Politico in the list of links on the blog page. Post the link to the article and underneath write your reaction. Do not summarize, but write your response to the article and why you chose it.

Article 1 section 8:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

 

This is a list of all of the powers that congress has. It shows all the day to day capabilities that congress has in terms of all aspect of our society and government. It shows congresses involvement in our military, taxes, federal services, foreign duties as well as certain punishments for specific crimes like counterfeiting. I chose this particular articles because I found it the most informative. I had no idea about the different powers of congress and it also makes me wonder how many of these things had I not read this would I not know congress was involved in.

 

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/president-obama-government-shutdown-press-conference-97995.html?hp=t1_s

I chose this article because I found it very informative and interesting. With all this talk lately of political crisis and shutdown this article sheds some light from Obama's perspective about the topic. Obama feels like he wants to negotiate but the republicans are almost being bratty it sounds like and It makes out country look weak. I agree with Obama on these view points. This article is current with recent events in our political system and seems to tie in with some of the class as well hence why I choose it.

POL Assignment 3

Assignment (Due 10/1 ): Choose a passage from one of the readings (Adams, Rush, or Paine) and one from the Declaration of Independence. Write out both passages. Under that interpret the meaning of what the author is saying, and why they are saying it. Explain why you chose this passage and how it relates to the lecture.


"Just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty," in matters spiritual and temporal, is a thing that all men are clearly entitled to by the eternal and immutable laws of God and nature, as well as by the law of nations and all well-grounded municipal laws, which must have their foundation in the former.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them.

In Both the excerpt from Declaration of Independence and the excerpt In Samuel Adams's "The Rights of The Colonists", The Laws of God and Nature are discussed. I think what they are referring to are laws that all men are entitled to simply based on the fact that they are alive and human. To me the laws of nature refer to laws that are basically embedded into human living for example the right to own land would be a law of nature because any man willing to put in the work, time, and money into land should be able to own it and do as he please with it. The laws made by men are more of a construct on how to be socially civilized amongst each other. The laws of God to me refer to how religion fits into society. No man should be denied right to practice any belief or any variation of beliefs. In both of these documents it is stated that there are rights that a man always has and should never be taken away.

  

Pol Assignment 2

Assignment (Due 9/24): Choose a quote from Chesterton and write it out on your blog. Under that write your interpretation of what you think the author is trying to say. Then, after that write out your own explanation of the meaning of this passage and why you chose this specific quote. Next class, we will talk about the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution.

Of course this generalization about America, like other historical things, is subject to all sorts of cross[Pg 14] divisions and exceptions, to be considered in their place. The Negroes are a special problem, because of what white men in the past did to them. The Japanese are a special problem, because of what men fear that they in the future may do to white men. The Jews are a special problem, because of what they and the Gentiles, in the past, present, and future, seem to have the habit of doing to each other. But the point is not that nothing exists in America except this idea; it is that nothing like this idea exists anywhere except in America. This idea is not internationalism; on the contrary it is decidedly nationalism. The Americans are very patriotic, and wish to make their new citizens patriotic Americans.

I think what Chesterton is trying to say here is in america despite all the different scenarios that have happened with all the people of different races we are still willing to have these people in our country despite that as long as they conform to being American the way we view Americans should be. Other countries are more weary of foreigners and tend to not be so willing to accept a large number of people knowing that they come with different views and opinions and with their own sense of nationalism where as america just wants you to succumb to becoming american.

I chose this quote because it very much indicates what america was formed on and has been about even til this day sure we preach freedom and democracy but it all comes at cost and only then when you obtain it it has to be to american standard, and I sorta agree with this and then I dont I agree with letting everyone come over and start their lives a new in america and to be come american citizens however I don't agree that we should try and change and control so much of these people as well.

POL assignment 1

Assignment Due 9/17: Choose a quote from Bourne and write it out in your blog. Under that write your interpretation of what you think the author is trying to say and explain that. Then, after that write out your own explanation of the meaning of this passage and why you chose this specific quote and how it relates to this class.

"These people were not mere arrivals from the same family, to be welcomed as understood and long-loved, but strangers to the neighborhood, with whom a long process of settling down had to take place. For they brought with them their national and racial characters, and each new national quota had to wear slowly away the contempt with which its mere alienness got itself greeted. Each had to make its way slowly from the lowest strata of unskilled labor up to a level where it satisfied the accredited norms of social success."

I think Bourne is trying to say that when people came from different other parts of the world to america the people who set the social standard as to what america was judged the newcomers to harshly instead of taking them as they were. All of these people brought with them piece of their homeland same as the first Americans did but they forgot about that and instead judged them accordingly not realizing just as they had to work their ways back up to being accredited in this new social environment these newcomers had to do the same. These newcomers to america had only minimal skills and had to educate them selves and re brand them selves to fit in with Americans.

I chose this quote because it was one of the more meaningful of the essay there are other similar quotes to this one in the essay I could of picked but I like this one because it has more of a summary of the entire essay in such a small passage its's basically about the adjustment of newcomers to a society established by people who only recently established a society. I think this relates to the class because this class is about the american political system and society and its roles need to be established before a political system can be established so its almost like an underlying root.