Currently, the United States has one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the country. This can be attributed to many variables and demographics. One of which variables is age. The younger the citizens they less likely they are to vote. Young people do not pay attention to politics and do not understand it's impact on their daily lives. Polls show that senior citizens vote far more often then their young counterparts. Another factor that affects voter turnout is your level of education. College graduates are more likely to vote then those didn't regardless of race.
Jury duty is required for those registered to vote, which may have an effect on voter turnout. This is because people don't like jury duty as it takes up a lot of time and they aren't payed for it. Also the extensive process of going to vote, turns many of the politically uninterested voters away.
An example of a linkage institution would be the media. As they inform the citizens about the current state of world politics. Also they connect to citizens many different outlets and opinions, allows citizens to form their own opinions based on the different perspectives.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Essay #5 Prompt: Interest Group
Interest Groups have many methods of obtaining the funding they need to run their operations. Litigation is one of these methods, as it is the process of taking legal action. For example groups concerned with environmental issues may take legal action against corporations causing destruction to the environment. Another method used by interest groups are campaign contributions. These contributions help interest groups endorse candidates whose political agenda supports that of the interest group. Limits are set on how much money a known organization can contribute as opposed to an unknown contributor. Lastly another method used by interest groups is grassroots lobbying/ mass mobilization. Also known as indirect lobbying, this method allows an attempt to affect the public opinion on legislature. This is used by interest groups because it lets them impact the legislation process.
An example of an organization at work today, would be the NRA (National Rifle Association). The NRA has been operating since 1871and is a strong advocate of gun safety, proficiency and ownership. Of the methods listed the NRA frequently uses campaign contributions as a way to garner attention. By endorsing candidates who support the values of the NRA, the NRA gains more support in their cause. The NRA would choose this method over the others because it is simpler and while it more require more funding, it gains a more positive media spotlight then going through the court systems.
An example of an organization at work today, would be the NRA (National Rifle Association). The NRA has been operating since 1871and is a strong advocate of gun safety, proficiency and ownership. Of the methods listed the NRA frequently uses campaign contributions as a way to garner attention. By endorsing candidates who support the values of the NRA, the NRA gains more support in their cause. The NRA would choose this method over the others because it is simpler and while it more require more funding, it gains a more positive media spotlight then going through the court systems.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Essay #5 Outline: Interest Groups
ESSAY Prompt
Create your draft response for this essay.
Publish.
Essay 5
Different interest groups will choose different techniques to achieve their objectives based on their resources, characteristics, and goals.
a) describe each of the following techniques and explain why an interest group would choose each technique.
Litigation
Campaign contributions
Grassroots Lobbying / mass mobilization.
b) Select one of the following groups and identify the primary technique it uses from the list in part (a). Explain why the group you selected would employ that technique over the other two techniques.
American Medical Association
Sierra Club
NRA
NAACP
Publish.
Essay 5
Different interest groups will choose different techniques to achieve their objectives based on their resources, characteristics, and goals.
a) describe each of the following techniques and explain why an interest group would choose each technique.
Litigation
Campaign contributions
Grassroots Lobbying / mass mobilization.
b) Select one of the following groups and identify the primary technique it uses from the list in part (a). Explain why the group you selected would employ that technique over the other two techniques.
American Medical Association
Sierra Club
NRA
NAACP
Essay Outline
Litigation- The process of taking legal action
Campaign Contributions- Money given to political campaigns to run for office. caps are set on how money a known organization can give versus an unknown organization.
Grassroots Lobbying/ Mass mobilization- Also known as indirect lobbying, is an attempt to affect the public opinion on legislature. With the intention of reaching the legislature and affecting the decision making process.
Part B Outline
NRA- The National Rifle Association is a nonprofit organization since 1871 and is an advocate of gun proficiency, ownership and safety.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Senator Wyden Bio and Questions
Ron Wyden was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1949. His parents were both jewish, living in the Nazi Germany, which they fled to live in the U.S. Wyden grew up in Palo Alto, California. Later he went on to attend University of California Santa Barbara, Stanford and University of Oregon School of Law.
His first position in politics was as a member of the House of Representatives from 1981 to 1996. He was wildly popular as a democratic candidate with at least 70% of the vote in each house election. After serving in the House of Representatives, Wyden ran for the Senate in 1996 and barely won against Gordon Smith. He then was elected to a full term and remains an Oregon Senator to this day.
Committees Involved with:
Senator Wyden is a big supporter of education and aims to make the college education accessible to more people. In 2001, he authored the College Tuition Savings Act which eliminated taxes on college savings funds. Also he authored the Student Right to Know Before You Go Act, which helped potential college students understand what majors made how money in a career.
Sources:
http://www.wyden.senate.gov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Wyden
His first position in politics was as a member of the House of Representatives from 1981 to 1996. He was wildly popular as a democratic candidate with at least 70% of the vote in each house election. After serving in the House of Representatives, Wyden ran for the Senate in 1996 and barely won against Gordon Smith. He then was elected to a full term and remains an Oregon Senator to this day.
Committees Involved with:
- Committee on the Budget
- Committee on Finance
- Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure
- Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight
- Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs and Global Competitiveness (Chairman)
- Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (Chairman)
- Select Committee on Intelligence
- Special Committee on Aging
- Joint Committee on Taxation
- In today's troubled economy many politicians contemplate the best approach. Senator Wyden is a supporter of tax reform. Wyden cosponsored the Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act. Which has been many economists as the best way to simplify our tax codes and economy going forward.The reform is meant to aid in corporate and individual tax codes,while creating millions of new jobs.
Senator Wyden is a big supporter of education and aims to make the college education accessible to more people. In 2001, he authored the College Tuition Savings Act which eliminated taxes on college savings funds. Also he authored the Student Right to Know Before You Go Act, which helped potential college students understand what majors made how money in a career.
Sources:
http://www.wyden.senate.gov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Wyden
Thursday, November 14, 2013
The Phillippines Relief Project
After thousands of lives lost in the tragic storm in the Philippines, efforts are being made to help those in need. But some are more important then others when is a crisis. Priority number one in this case should be clean and portable water. Without water people will die and as seen in Hati, without clean water disease will spread.
To solve this problem, I recommend putting funding towards establishing teams with supplies of clean water and water filtering devices into the most troubled cities in the Philippines like Manila or
Guiuan.
As far as selecting an organization to lead this project, there are many options. Red Cross has the most disaster experience, but they would also take the biggest cut of funding. On the other-hand OXFAM is a less established organization, but other 78% of their funding goes towards their disaster relief programs. Personally I would choose the American Red Cross as they are well established and have proven their abilities on multiple occasions in the past. Despite the extra funding needed, they guarantee results.
For my invention. I think a safe way of transporting clean water overseas without complications is an essential piece of reacting faster to natural disasters. Therefore our government should develop a system of cargo ships exclusively made for transporting clean water and filtering supplies to overseas disaster areas. This way nobody struggles with finding transportation of needed water in these situations.
To solve this problem, I recommend putting funding towards establishing teams with supplies of clean water and water filtering devices into the most troubled cities in the Philippines like Manila or
Guiuan.
As far as selecting an organization to lead this project, there are many options. Red Cross has the most disaster experience, but they would also take the biggest cut of funding. On the other-hand OXFAM is a less established organization, but other 78% of their funding goes towards their disaster relief programs. Personally I would choose the American Red Cross as they are well established and have proven their abilities on multiple occasions in the past. Despite the extra funding needed, they guarantee results.
For my invention. I think a safe way of transporting clean water overseas without complications is an essential piece of reacting faster to natural disasters. Therefore our government should develop a system of cargo ships exclusively made for transporting clean water and filtering supplies to overseas disaster areas. This way nobody struggles with finding transportation of needed water in these situations.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Watergate: Deep Throat
A secret source in a time of great corruption. This was Deep Throat or as he was later known by his real name W. Mark Felt. Throughout the Watergate scandal, Felt provided important information to the Washington Post that helped surface the corruption taking place during the Nixon presidency. He was a key component of exposing the fraudulent executive branch of our government.
Felt was a top-ranking FBI agent during the Nixon era. He was in consideration to replace J. Edgar Hoover when he stepped down as Director of The FBI. But felt was not selected for the position because Nixon's administration did not trust Felt to run things in the moral gray area that Nixon came to represent. As a top-ranking agent, Felt had many contacts in the white house and in the government. He knew Nixon was using wire-taps and breaking the law in order to keep his public appearance intact. Felt decided he had to do something to expose what was going on. This is where the press came into play, because Felt was known at the time for tipping off reporters about critical upcoming news. So Woodward and Bernstein at the time were low level reporters looking for their big scoop. When the opportunity to break the Watergate scandal come to them they knew this was a world-altering news story.
When leaking information to the press, Felt would meet with Woodward and Bernstein of The Post in a parking garage very early in the morning. At the time, Felt was worried his phones were being tapped so he developed a system of coded-signals to stay hidden.
The risks being taken by Felt were insane. He was not only defying the president, but the entire government. But Felt knew the importance of what he knew about the Nixon administration and his willingness towards illegal activity. "He knew was taking a monumental risk," said Woodward, now an assistant managing editor of The Post. Felt took a chance that no was willing to take for the sake of the morally righteous government.
The importance of Felt's efforts to up hold the truth during a time of corruption cannot be understated. Without his leaks to the press, the public may have never known the truth about the Watergate break-ins. Without that information getting to the public, Nixon may have never stepped down and our government would have become a symbol of ethics of the morally questionable.
Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbis-no-2-was-deep-throat-mark-felt-ends-30-year-mystery-of-the-posts-watergate-source/2012/06/04/gJQAwseRIV_story.html
http://www.history.com/topics/Watergate
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/why-did-deep-throat-leak--revisiting-the-watergate-leaks-and-the-garage-where-it-all-began-213911831.html
Felt was a top-ranking FBI agent during the Nixon era. He was in consideration to replace J. Edgar Hoover when he stepped down as Director of The FBI. But felt was not selected for the position because Nixon's administration did not trust Felt to run things in the moral gray area that Nixon came to represent. As a top-ranking agent, Felt had many contacts in the white house and in the government. He knew Nixon was using wire-taps and breaking the law in order to keep his public appearance intact. Felt decided he had to do something to expose what was going on. This is where the press came into play, because Felt was known at the time for tipping off reporters about critical upcoming news. So Woodward and Bernstein at the time were low level reporters looking for their big scoop. When the opportunity to break the Watergate scandal come to them they knew this was a world-altering news story.
When leaking information to the press, Felt would meet with Woodward and Bernstein of The Post in a parking garage very early in the morning. At the time, Felt was worried his phones were being tapped so he developed a system of coded-signals to stay hidden.
The risks being taken by Felt were insane. He was not only defying the president, but the entire government. But Felt knew the importance of what he knew about the Nixon administration and his willingness towards illegal activity. "He knew was taking a monumental risk," said Woodward, now an assistant managing editor of The Post. Felt took a chance that no was willing to take for the sake of the morally righteous government.
The importance of Felt's efforts to up hold the truth during a time of corruption cannot be understated. Without his leaks to the press, the public may have never known the truth about the Watergate break-ins. Without that information getting to the public, Nixon may have never stepped down and our government would have become a symbol of ethics of the morally questionable.
Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbis-no-2-was-deep-throat-mark-felt-ends-30-year-mystery-of-the-posts-watergate-source/2012/06/04/gJQAwseRIV_story.html
http://www.history.com/topics/Watergate
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/why-did-deep-throat-leak--revisiting-the-watergate-leaks-and-the-garage-where-it-all-began-213911831.html
Friday, November 1, 2013
AP Gov Essay 10/31/13
As time has gone on, our government has changed it's policies. This also goes for the constitution as it is amended and tweaked over time. There are two ways to amend the constitution both formal and informal. The formal approach includes proposal and ratification. The informal route includes more propaganda and proposal, rather then ratification.The informal methods are used more frequently because they require less effort, but could still warrant a result.
A major system of government at play today is federalism. It is the layering of government to create a system of shared power. One of the benefits of federalism is categorical grants, which limit the uses of the grant money so it can't be overused. Also another benefit would be federal mandates, which help regulate the relations between state and local government.
But as the state and national government found their boundaries, there were certain instances that required the states to have more power. An example of such power would be the tenth amendment. This amendment gave the states implied powers that weren't directly addressed in the constitution. Also block grants would be another example of power to the state government. These grants gave states funding for broad programs such as community development.
A major system of government at play today is federalism. It is the layering of government to create a system of shared power. One of the benefits of federalism is categorical grants, which limit the uses of the grant money so it can't be overused. Also another benefit would be federal mandates, which help regulate the relations between state and local government.
But as the state and national government found their boundaries, there were certain instances that required the states to have more power. An example of such power would be the tenth amendment. This amendment gave the states implied powers that weren't directly addressed in the constitution. Also block grants would be another example of power to the state government. These grants gave states funding for broad programs such as community development.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
AP Gov Essay 10/30/13
Since the 1780's, one branch of government has been voted on by the people. This branch is the legislative branch, specifically the House of Representatives. Going forward, our government later developed a system of checks and balances that limited majority rule and helped the government create a system of safeguards. Also the separation of powers helped limit majority rule.
As our country becomes more advanced, so have our election systems. Every four years primaries are held to select nominees for each political party. This a helpful system because everyone has the opportunity to vote, the downside is that not many people actually do. Another example of evolution is the expansion of suffrage. As the government has evolved so has our view on equal rights in all aspects including voting.
But as our government advances, somethings have only been made worse. One of these issues is a lack of political participation. The United States has one of the lowest voter turnouts rates of any country in the world. But to mention nobody is actually engages in politics. Some examples of political participation include working on a political campaign and protesting. Working on a campaign is a benefit because you can gain work experience and can support a cause you feel strongly about. Also you get a chance to meet political candidates and form your own opinions. In the case of protesting, you are allowed to more freely express your opinions and it's not restricted by time like voting.
As our country becomes more advanced, so have our election systems. Every four years primaries are held to select nominees for each political party. This a helpful system because everyone has the opportunity to vote, the downside is that not many people actually do. Another example of evolution is the expansion of suffrage. As the government has evolved so has our view on equal rights in all aspects including voting.
But as our government advances, somethings have only been made worse. One of these issues is a lack of political participation. The United States has one of the lowest voter turnouts rates of any country in the world. But to mention nobody is actually engages in politics. Some examples of political participation include working on a political campaign and protesting. Working on a campaign is a benefit because you can gain work experience and can support a cause you feel strongly about. Also you get a chance to meet political candidates and form your own opinions. In the case of protesting, you are allowed to more freely express your opinions and it's not restricted by time like voting.
Friday, October 18, 2013
**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?
**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?
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Something about me, I love to travel. I went to Europe for three weeks over the summer and saw England, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Germany. It was incredible and I hope to travel more in the future. Also I love music and play saxophone in the Summit Band. I hope to major in music in college and be able to teach, conduct and play professionally.
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