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During the semester, I shall post course material and students will comment on it. Students are also free to comment on any aspect of American politics, either current or historical. There are only two major limitations: no coarse language, and no derogatory comments about people at the Claremont Colleges. This blog is on the open Internet, so post nothing that you would not want a potential employer to see. Syllabus: http://gov20h.blogspot.com/2023/08/draft-introduction-to-american-politics.html

Thursday, December 7, 2023

Full Circle

Identifying with MLK.

CA/TX comparison in today's LAT

There is actually some support for Texas secession -- or "Texit." 

The Russians promoted Texit. 

There was a CalExit campaign -- also with roots in Russia

And some are even talking about a "national divorce."

The Founders rejected the idea of multiple confederacies.

Secession is unconstitutional  

Lincoln explained:
The Constitution provides, and all the States have accepted the provision, that "the United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government." But if a State may lawfully go out of the Union, having done so it may also discard the republican form of government; so that to prevent its going out is an indispensable means to the end of maintaining the guaranty mentioned; and when an end is lawful and obligatory the indispensable means to it are also lawful and obligatory.

Danielle Allen!

Saving Private Ryan (start at 6;00) and the actual Lincoln letter

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

California, Texas, and Inequality

 For Thursday, finish Miller.

DeSantis on CA:

TAXES AND DISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTS


California income tax: Top 1 percent of taxpayers now generate half of personal income tax receipts.





  • Texas 5.1%
  • California: 17.6%





Guns in TX




Guns in CA: Miller 237-238




Alike in many ways, but whites have different attitudes (scroll down in article)






In new results provided exclusively to The Atlantic, [Michael] Podhorzer calculates that the economic output per capita and the median family income are both now 27 percent higher in the blue section than in the red, while the share of children in poverty is 27 percent higher in the red states. The share of people without health insurance is more than 80 percent higher in the red states than in the blue, as are the rates of teen pregnancy and maternal death in childbirth. The homicide rate across the red states is more than one-third higher than in the blue, and the rate of death from firearms is nearly double in the red. Average life expectancy at birth is now about two and a half years higher in the blue states. On most of these measures, the purple states fall between red and blue.




Opportunity Atlas and Mapping Inequality

The future of racial and ethnic politics:







Thursday, November 30, 2023

Texas, California, and Public Policy

 For Tuesday, read Miller ch. 11-13.

On Tuesday, we shall adjourn at noon for course evaluations.  Bring your devices.

...................................California...........Texas.............Florida

Population 2020-22    -509k..................+707k.............+471k

Supp. poverty rate.......13.2%..................11.3%..............12.7%

Homeless per 10k........43.8........................8.3.................11.9

Unemployment (Oct)....4.8%.....................4.1%..............2.8%

Viol crimes per 100k....499.5....................431.9............ 258.9

Gun deaths per 100K.........9.......................15.6...............14.1

USN education rank.....#20.........................#37................#1

USN health rank.............#4........................#23.................#13


Political Background Review



Taxes and Fiscal Policy



BUT CONSIDER DISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECT

California income tax: Top 1 percent of taxpayers now generate half of personal income tax receipts.








  • Texas 5.1%
  • California: 17.6%




Final Essay Assignment

Answer one question from Part A and one from part B. Each of your two answers should take about 2 1/2 pages. The whole assignment should be no more than five pages total.

 Your answers should draw upon class readings, discussions, and items that I have posted on the course blog. Where appropriate, you should also use outside sources.

There is no single right answer to any of these questions. The point of this exercise is to show that you have thought carefully about course content.

Part A:

1. Saul Alinsky comes to you in a dream.  "I died in 1972," he says.  "I don't believe in the afterlife, but here I am anyway. The publisher wants a brief afterword, which I cannot write because I am dead.  So write the afterword for me. Name something in the past 51 years that would require me to revise my analysis. (It could be in politics, culture, or technology.) Explain, with specific reference what I wrote when I was alive."

2. Evaluate one of the following essays in light of class discussions and materials. Does the author miss anything important? What would a critic of the article's viewpoint say? Do you agree or disagree?
Part B:

1. In light of your own circumstances, and all other things being equal, would you prefer to spend the rest of your life in Texas or California? (You must pick. "Neither" is not an option.) Explain your criteria, and give specific reasons why one state meets those criteria better than the other.

2.  Texas and California will have gubernatorial elections in 2026.  Pick one state or the other, and explain how a candidate of the minority party could become competitive.  That is, how could a Democrat mount a serious race in Texas?  Or how could a Republican put on a serious race in California?  (You need not identify a specific candidate, although it might help.)

I will not be able to read drafts.
  • Assignments should be typed, double-spaced, and no more than five pages long in total. Use 12-point type and one-inch margins.
  • Cite your sources with endnotes, which should be in standard Turabian format. The author's first name goes first.
  • Endnote pages do not count against the page limit.
  • Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you.
  • Do not use ChatGPT or any other generative AI. Misrepresenting AI-generated content as your own work is plagiarism.  It will result in a referral to the Academic Standards Committee.  You do not want to start your college career this way.  Important note:  in many cases, generative AI will give you wrong answers.
  • Return assignments via email or the class Sakai dropbox by NOON on Wednesday, December 13.  Please submit them as Word documents, not pdfs or Google docs. I reserve the right to dock papers one gradepoint for one day’s lateness and a full grade for two or more days’ lateness.  Early submissions are most welcome.

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

California Politics, Texas Politics

Will assign take-home final (two essays) this week.

For Wednesday, read Miller ch. 9-10.

Tale of the Tape (percent D)

California 

                                    1992                2022

Assembly seats           57.5%              77.5%

Senate seats                 60.0%            80.0% 

House seats                 57.7%             76.9%


Texas

State House seats       61.3%               42.7%   

State Senate seats       58.1%               38.7%

House seats                 70.0%               34.2%

Background:  

  • Texas and the Confederacy
  • California and Progressivism

The Big Sort:

In 1976, Democrat Jimmy Carter narrowly carried Texas and Republican Gerald Ford narrowly carried California.





Partisan trifectas through 2020 and in 2022.

Overall political party strength in Texas and California

What accounts for the shift?



1994 in California and Texas:











Thursday, November 16, 2023

Alinsky, Protest, Inequality

For Tuesday: Miller, ch. 1-5.

Looking forward to writeups this week.  No writeups next week.

One more writeup after that:  you may send it to me anytime in the last two weeks of class.

TACTICS
TIME IN JAIL" (156-158)

From Birmingham Jail:

YOU express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, it is rather strange and paradoxical to find us consciously breaking laws. One may well ask, "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "An unjust law is no law at all."

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. To use the words of Martin Buber, the great Jewish philosopher, segregation substitutes an "I - it" relationship for the "I - thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. So segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, but it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Isn't segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, an expression of his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? So I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court because it is morally right, and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances because they are morally wrong.

Let us turn to a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself. This is difference made legal. On the other hand, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow, and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

Let me give another explanation. An unjust law is a code inflicted upon a minority which that minority had no part in enacting or creating because it did not have the unhampered right to vote. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up the segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout the state of Alabama all types of conniving methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties without a single Negro registered to vote, despite the fact that the Negroes constitute a majority of the population. Can any law set up in such a state be considered democratically structured?

These are just a few examples of unjust and just laws. There are some instances when a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I was arrested Friday on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong with an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade, but when the ordinance is used to preserve segregation and to deny citizens  the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and peaceful protest, then it becomes unjust.

Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil
disobedience.

We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. But I am sure that if I had lived in Germany during that time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal. If I lived in a Communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these anti-religious laws.

Equality, Education, and Class

Educational attainment:



From U.S. Education Department’s National Center for Education StatisticsL
  • Of students who enrolled in public four-year universities, 45% had parents with college degrees and 26% did not
  • One third of first-generation students dropped out of college after three years, compared to 14% of those whose parents did have a degree
Ph.D. and Inequality