The Electoral College

          The Electoral College was created for a number of reasons.  One reason is because there was a fear of factions in the United States.  The electoral college would prevent the largest faction or group from being able to rule unfairly.  The Electoral College also protects those with money and power, which tend to be the fewer.  In short, a main reason it was created was the fact that our forefathers feared the large masses of poor and for the security of private property.  The Electoral College allows the federals and the states to run the elections.  This is an example of indirect democracy, which protects the elite from the poor.  I believe that this system was fair for the time period (1787) it was designed for because then, most of the elite and powerful were those who were the most educated.  It is clear that times have changed and for the time period we are in now, I think it is a bit unfair.  People today realize that brilliance can come from anywhere and a great amount of money is not necessarily needed to become well educated.  The Electoral College has failed on numerous occasions, one of them being in 1800.  The Democratic-Republican electors gave both Thomas JEfferson and Aaron Burr an equal number of Electoral votes.  Because it was a tie, it had to be settled in the House of Representatives, which eventually came in Jefferson's favor.  Because of this failure in the system, the twelfth amendment was made to prevent a tie from ever happening again.

Head of State: Satires and the Evolution of Gilliam

         
          The movie Head of State makes a comedic attack on an electoral system where candidates don't say what they actually  think but simply repeat safe centrist platitudes.  This movie satirizes the nature of political parties in many ways such as the way the campaigns are run and what is said to each party to gain votes.  The candidates mainly only say what their party wants to hear in order to be elected, not exactly what they believe.  It also satirizes how a candidate may pretend to care about topics on camera and when off camera, he couldn't care less.  For example when on camera, Brian Lewis gave a small speech about how important the children are and their safety is but off camera, it was easy to tell he was faking his interest.  This movie shows how people don't always know as much as they think they know when it comes to what is going on behind the scenes in politics.

          Mays Gilliam evolves greatly throughout his candidacy.  He begins his campaign very unaware of the power he holds and  only saying what he is told to say by his advisors/campaign managers.  He is told exactly what to say and how to say it.  It is clear that he doesn't understand that he also has a voice and can use this opportunity to make the kind of differences he wishes to.  After a talk with his brother Gilliam starts to realize that he can voice his own opinions and make a difference in the county that he believes in.  As he visits more states, he gets into the grove of how to run his own campaign.  Gilliam really begins taking over and coming up with his own ideas and stratagies after learning that his advisors didn't actually believe in him.  He starts saying the things that he truly believes in and what most of the population believes in also.  Once Gilliam does this, he gains more and more votes until he eventually wins the election.

Election Day

             
               Although I am eighteen, I am not yet registered to vote.  If were registered, however, I would have voted for Charlie Baker for multiple reasons. I like that Charlie Baker focuses on secondary education and I agree with his plan for higher education.  A three-year bachelor's degree could reduce the cost of a regular college education by 25%.  Furthermore, I believe students would be willing to work a bit hater within those three years to save their parents and/or themselves thousands of dollars.  I also agree with Charlie Baker's plan for sick time for workers. Martha Coakley's plan states that any business with over eleven workers would qualify and I believe that this would include many more businesses than necessary.  Charlie Baker's idea is that only businesses with over fifty workers will be eligible for paid sick time, with the plan of one hour for every forty hours worked. In my opinion, this idea is more reasonable because it lets businesses have more control over what they do.  Also, it is unlikely that businesses would not give sick time because if they didn't they would have a difficult time getting employers.  When it comes to welfare reform, Martha Coakley seems to not be focused on the issue while Charlie Baker wants stricter welfare conditions.  Charlie Baker also wants to raise the age for work exemption from sixty to sixty-five, which in my opinion makes a lot of sense because people live longer than they used to and many people are still able to work even past the age of sixty-five.  Some people argue that Charlie Baker cannot be trusted on the issue of climate change because he changed his mind in the past five years.  I don't believe this is a problem because his opinion very well could have been the result of more evidence arising on the topic of climate change.  Lastly, when it comes to climate change, I believe that both parties have solid goals for reducing green house gasses.  If  I were a registered voter, I most likely would have voted for Charlie Baker because of the reasons presented.

Lincoln and the Thirteenth Amendment

               In the movie Lincoln, the president faces many difficulties when trying to ratify the thirteenth amendment.  Many people of the time period had issues with the proposal of the amendment because they were racist.  The majority of the public did not want African Americans to have the right to vote, which they believed would eventually happen if the amendment were to be passed.  Americans were also worried about losing their jobs to African Americans.  Lincoln had trouble passing the amendment because he needed two thirds for the majority and most of the house wasn't republican.  He also needed democratic support.  There  were many complications as to how the war would end and most of the people who wanted the amendment to pass only wanted this because Lincoln made it seem like this was the only way for the war to end.  Lincoln used his implied powers, which were slightly corrupt, to help the amendment pass.  Lincoln offers future jobs, such as post master and mayor, to the lame duck democrats as a bribe to gain their support in the ratification of the thirteenth amendment.  The president was also corrupt due to the fact that he lied about upcoming peace talks.  He wanted peace to be reliant of the ratification of this amendment.  Lincoln obviously thought that getting this amendment passed was of the utmost importance.  A vital effect of the amendment passing for Lincoln would be all of the votes he would receive from the African American population.  Lincoln was planning on running for another term as president and knew that if he passed this amendment, he would gain an abundance of votes for the next election.

Amendment Memes

               The fourth amendment states that the government must have probable cause in order to search one's private property.  If a judge declares there is enough probably cause, the police can search your property against your will. 

               The second amendment states that we have the right to bear arms.  This amendment is extremely controversial, especially with the recent rise in gun violence.  Not everyone should be allowed to own a gun, yet those people still manage to obtain them anyway.  

Family Guy: Petoria

          In an episode of Family Guy, a nation called Petoria forms.  Petoria is an Oligarchy because power remains within the hands of very few people and there is only one political party.  There are positives and negatives to Peter's new anti-federalist, small government.  Peter did not need to follow any laws that the people of United States had to follow, therefore, Peter and his family had more freedom to do whatever they wanted to at the time.  Another benefit of Petoria was that Peter and his family did not need to pay taxes to the United States government.  Even though there were positives to the Griffins's succession from Quahog, there were also many detrimental negatives that caused the Griffins to eventually need to become a part of the United States once again. When Peter annexes his neighbor's land, it causes issues with the United States and the military surrounds his house.  Peter faces consequences such as not being able to share the resources he would need from the United States, such as electricity, heat, and water for his house.  Peter's wife, Lois, even had to home school her children because they were not allowed to go to the United States's public schools.  Petoria may have seemed like a good idea to Peter at the time but it could not survive. 

Ratification of the Constitution 

            It was very difficult to ratify the Constitution for many reasons.  This difficulty was mainly because nine states had to ratify the Constitution in order for it to be official and many were concerned about the possible new form of government.  Those that opposed the Constitution were called antifederalists.  Antifederalists believed that it was wrong to create the Constitution and argued that "the delagates in Philadelphia had exceeded their congressional authority by replacing the Articles of Confederation with an illegal new document" (The Ratification of the Constitution). These beliefs made ratification a somewhat problematic process.  Some people believed that the Constitution was made to benefit only the well-off Philadelphians and that the Constitution "gave too much central power to the central government" (The Ratification of the Constitution).  Most of these allegations were able to be countered by Federalists, who were in favor of the Constitution.  The federalists claimed that "rejection of the constitution would result in anarchy and civil strife" (The ratification of the Constitution).  One of the most significant of convictions was that the Constitution did not include a bill of rights but the federalists, such as James Madison  verified that one would be made promptly after the ratification (The Ratification of the Constitution).  Overall, the ratification process was strenuous for many reasons but the Constitution was eventually effectuated.  

Works Cited: The Ratification of the Constitution (article from class)

Why did the Articles of Confederation fail?

            The Articles of Confederation was basically the first constitution of the United States.  The Articles of Confederation failed for many reasons.  Some of the reasons that contributed to its failure were that it was weak and could not collect taxes nor amend articles with unanimous votes. The Articles of Confederation was too weak because the people of the United States wanted to do everything in their power to prevent a monarchy from occurring at this point.  Because the Articles of Confederation was too weak, it could not accomplish certain things that were necessary such as collect taxes and amend articles with unanimous votes.  Without the ability to collect taxes, the government would always be short of funds.  After the war, many debts needed to be paid and because the government could not collect taxes, paying them became a major issue.  The Articles of Confederation could had trouble amending articles because they could not do so unanimously and without nine out of the thirteen states agreeing with the possible amendment.  Because of these rules, amendments were never made and in a constantly growing and changing nation, that would have been a severe issue. Overall, the Articles of Confederation was considerably weak, leading to its inevitable downfall.

What might life be like if there was no government? Why do you think humans organized governing bodies? 

       If there were no government, life might just be chaotic. There would be no laws, causing society to grow up not knowing basic moral rights and manors. Laws are established by the government, therefore, if there were no government, there would be nothing set in place to decide what is considered worthy of punishment. 

       Murder could occur and most people would not understand why it is not an acceptable thing to do because there would be no legal consequence for such a monstrosity. Aside from having no laws enforcing human behaviors, there would also be nothing regarding how workers would be paid or even how to establish careers so the majority of society could earn money in order to live. 

       Even the earliest of humans created a form of governing leaders, from the Ancient Greek senators to the Native American chiefs because there was a mutual understanding that without this commanding authority, there would be no foundation for a way of living. People would not know how to go about doing the things we believe to be considered common. 

       The average human today wakes up in the morning in some form of dwelling and goes to work or school then attends some form of extra activity for personal enjoyment or other purposes then goes back to their dwelling to sleep and does it all over again. Without a form of government, almost nothing that the average human does on a daily basis would exist. Everything we do is in some way regulated by the government, such as the pricing of a house, the amount of money that is distributed to each person, the amount and type of cash that is printed, how much people have to pay for the good of other people, and a million more ways that decide how out civilization functions. Humans organized governing bodies because there was a mutual understanding that rules need to be set forth in order for humans to have a foundation to build on for the rest of life's opportunities.