This blog serves the honors section of our introductory course on American politics (Claremont McKenna College Government 20) for the fall of 2023.
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Monday, September 29, 2008
Patriotism, Civil Religion, and Citizenship
Different takes on religion and the United States
We can see visual evidence of the "civil religion" in many places:
- Winthrop's "City on a Hill"
- The Great Seal of the United States
- The Liberty Bell
- The national motto, "In God We Trust"
- The Pledge of Allegiance (see old method of salute)
- Early Thanksgiving Proclamations
- And note where Americans volunteer
In 2002, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that including "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. A Newsweek poll then asked a national sample if the Pledge should contain the phrase. Eighty-seven percent said yes and 9 percent said no.
- Note requirements for naturalization.
- Ponder the official citizenship oath.
Bailout plan fails in House vote of 228 to 205
I would like to see more long run approach to the crisis because if America, already $9.8 trillion in debt, borrows $700 billion more neither presidential candidate can fulfill their promises come January. Both candidates need to tailor their platforms to address the possibility of limited funding for their promises of tax cuts and national health care programs.
But I am glad to see that Obama and McCain are addressing the issue and focusing on the solution.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Response to Samuel Huntington
I committed the grammatical error of confusing "federal" and "national" in my paper, which Huntington pointed out in one of the footnotes.
Is there any evidence of Americanization of religions/denominations other than Catholicism?
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Post-Debate Spin War
Thursday, September 25, 2008
How partisanship may destroy the economy
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Free Sarah Palin
Religion, Politics, and Patriotism
Congratulations to Kevin, for proposing this move before either candidate.
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Poll on human origins.
See here for data on willingness to vote for members of various groups. Also see Harris on the same subject.
You can get comparative data on religious belief and practice from:
- The Harris Poll
- Pew Global (scroll to p. 33 and 41)
- Gallup
Martin Luther King on the Social Gospel:
Obama on patriotism:
1.5% Chance of Electoral College Tie
Monday, September 22, 2008
The Bradley Effect
Transition
There is even a transition blog.Though they hate to discuss it, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama are quietly planning what to do in the frenetic 77-day period from the presidential election to Inauguration Day, so they will be ready to take up the reins of government.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
McCain and Obama should act like Senators
Currently the Treasury is asking the Senate for 700 billion dollars. That's $700,000,000,000, more than the cost of the Iraq War, and about 80% of the size of the federal discretionary budget. Don't you think this would be a great time for the candidates to, you know, lead the Senate? Get in front of some cameras, cast a vote, rally your fellow Senators, etc.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Cozying up with Tocqueville on a Saturday night
Do we now suffer under the tyranny of two majorities? Is that even possible?
I am finding Tocqueville chock full of insight but a difficult and slow read. I think Tocqueville overstates the case for everyone accepting a majority's passed judgment.
Also, I have not read all of the Federalist Papers, but it seemed to me that the authors didn't worry too much about the slow expansion of bureaucracy and government programs.
Tocqueville and American Civic Culture
Who was Tocqueville?
- Short biography
- Reasons for coming to America
- Itinerary
- Map of his travels, along with journal entries
He wrote: "The religious atmosphere of the country was the first thing that struck me on arrival in the United States." (p. 295 of Lawrence-Mayer ed.) See here for relevant data.
In June 2006, Barack Obama gave an important speech on religion in politics. See prepared text here.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Constitution and Federalist, Continued
- Citizens ... have the right to work, that is, are guaranteed the right to employment and payment for their work in accordance with its quantity and quality.
- Citizens ... have the right to rest and leisure. The right to rest and leisure is ensured by the reduction of the working day to seven hours for the overwhelming majority of the workers, the institution of annual vacations with full pay for workers and employees and the provision of a wide network of sanatoria, rest homes and clubs for the accommodation of the working people.
- Citizens ... have the right to maintenance in old age and also in case of sickness or loss of capacity to work. This right is ensured by the extensive development of social insurance of workers and employees...
- Citizens ... have the right to education. This right is ensured by universal, compulsory elementary education; by education, including higher education, being free of charge; by the system of state stipends for the overwhelming majority of students in the universities and colleges; by instruction in schools being conducted in the native language...
- Women ... are accorded equal rights with men in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life. The possibility of exercising these rights is ensured to women by granting them an equal right with men to work, payment for work, rest and leisure, social insurance and education, and by state protection of the interests of mother and child, prematernity and maternity leave with full pay, and the provision of a wide network of maternity homes, nurseries and kindergartens.
- Equality of rights of citizens ... irrespective of their nationality or race, in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life, is an indefeasible law. Any direct or indirect restriction of the rights of, or, conversely, any establishment of direct or indirect privileges for, citizens on account of their race or nationality, as well as any advocacy of racial or national exclusiveness or hatred and contempt, is punishable by law.
- [C]itizens are guaranteed by law:
- freedom of speech;
freedom of the press;
freedom of assembly, including the holding of mass meetings;
reedom of street processions and demonstrations.
Ron Chernow's biography undercuts the notion that Alexander Hamilton was a well-born defender of privilege. Here is a passage summing up what the born-out-of-wedlock Hamilton and his brother faced in their youth:
Let us pause briefly to tally the grim catalog of disasters that had befallen these two boys between 1765 and 1769: their father had vanished, their mother had died, their cousin and supposed protector had committed bloody suicide, and their aunt, uncle, and grandmother had all died. James, 16, and Alexander, 14, were now left alone, largely friendless and penniless. At every step in their rootless, topsy-turvy existence, they had been surrounded by failed, broken, embittered people. Their short lives had been shadowed by a stupefying sequence of bankruptcies, marital separations, deaths, scandals, and disinheritance. Such repeated shocks must have
stripped Alexander Hamilton of any sense that life was fair, that he existed in a benign universe, or that he could ever count on help from anyone. That this abominable childhood produced such a strong, productive, self-reliant human being -- that this fatherless adolescent could have ended up a founding father of a country he had not yet even seen -- seems little short of miraculous.
September 16, 2008
Rove Speaks
Posted by TOM BEVAN
CLAREMONT, CA - I'm here at Claremont McKenna College where I'll be giving a talk tonight on politics and new media at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum. Last night Karl Rove was the guest of honor, speaking about the election and offering an intimate view of what a day in the life inside the White House looks like for the President of the United States.
I won't recap everything he said, but there is one thing worth mentioning. Much has been made of Rove's remark last week on Fox News Sunday about the McCain camp going over the line in terms of its negative advertising, a claim that the Obama camp and its supporters have been trumpeting all week - even going so far as to use it in a fund raising appeal from David Plouffe yesterday.
The subject of McCain's ad knocking Obama over sex education came up during the question and answer portion of the proceedings last night, and Rove responded by saying - and I'm paraphrasing here - that in his opinion the McCain camp had erred by not being specific enough in its claim.
The bill, Rove pointed out (and which you can see from Byron York's analysis here this morning), did in fact include specific language that kindergarteners be taught about sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. Rove said that he felt the McCain campaign got "too cute" in using the phrase "comprehensive sex education" which opened the door to enough ambiguity for counter charges to be hurled back at McCain. Better to just let the exact language in the bill speak for itself, Rove said.
Rove went on to say that he thought the Obama campaign was making a serious mistake in using this to try and cast McCain as a dishonorable liar, because the label is fundamentally at odds with the core of McCain's public image. By spending so much effort trying to make this charge stick, Rove said, the Obama campaign was wasting valuable time that would be better spent offering voters a reason to vote for Obama rather than a reason to vote against McCain.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Both Sides Seeking to Be What Women Want
For evidence of how intensely the presidential candidates are battling over women, consider their investment in Oprah Winfrey. After the news programs, “Oprah” is the chief recipient of campaign advertisements this year, with Senator John McCain buying more commercial spots on the program in the last month than Senator Barack Obama — even though Ms. Winfrey herself is backing Mr. Obama.
And both campaigns are trying to highlight the issues they think will draw more support from women, with Mr. Obama emphasizing pay equity and abortion rights and Mr. McCain playing up his “maverick” image and raising questions of respect.
The fierce, and complicated, competition for the female vote has been escalated by Mr. McCain’s selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate. Even before the Palin selection, Mr. Obama was moving to shore up support from women, especially those who had supported Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primaries.
Now Obama campaign officials are stepping up their efforts, and both campaigns are recalibrating pitches to women to navigate cultural forces and policy positions that can give them an advantage.
In particular, they are competing for working-class white women, the group that could be especially pivotal in the states likely to decide the election.
For Mr. Obama, the push for women means emphasizing that he is running against Mr. McCain, not Ms. Palin, and drawing attention to Mr. McCain’s record on issues that particularly resonate with women: his opposition to abortion rights, his votes against expanded health insurance for children and pay equity legislation, and his support for private investment accounts for Social Security, of concern among white women over 50, a group Mr. Obama has had trouble winning over.
This week, Obama events have a theme, “Women for the Change We Need,” as the campaign tries to connect with women in conference calls, rallies and registration drives.
The campaign will also begin increasing advertising on television programs watched by women — besides “Oprah,” some of the biggest investments for the campaigns have been during “Dr. Phil,” “Live With Regis and Kelly” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
Each campaign is also beginning to put more spots on Lifetime, and a McCain media buyer recently lamented that the Food Network did not accept political advertising.
Mr. McCain will continue to campaign this week with Ms. Palin, with a rally on Tuesday in Ohio, an important state for working-class women. The two are expected to be together frequently in the seven remaining weeks of the campaign.
Beyond that, the McCain campaign’s strategy is to emphasize personality, capitalizing on the booming celebrity of Ms. Palin, highlighting Mr. McCain’s story as a war hero, showcasing their families, and trying to keep alive the anger about sexism that many women felt during Mr. Obama’s primary campaign against Mrs. Clinton.
Democrats have relied heavily on women in recent presidential elections — so much so that McCain strategists say they believe that to win they need to run even among women over all, and lead among white women.
Women have voted in greater proportions than men for almost three decades — in 2004, nearly nine million more women voted than men, 67.3 million to 58.5 million. But the hard-fought candidacy of Mrs. Clinton and Mr. McCain’s selection of Ms. Palin as the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket have put new cultural and ideological elements more fully into play.
“It’s because there were these women who supported Hillary Clinton, some of whom so visibly said they might not support Obama or might sit it out or vote for John McCain,” said Susan Carroll, a senior scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers who has written extensively on the gender gap in voting. “That really called attention to the fact that women were going to be critically important.”
Mr. McCain’s strategists do not expect to win more than a small fraction of Mrs. Clinton’s supporters. But they do see blocs of women they think they can win.
Democrats have been accused of taking women for granted, in part because they have been able to count on them: More women have voted Democratic in the last four presidential cycles. More men have voted Republican in all but two of the last nine, the exceptions being 1976, when Jimm Carter was the Democratic candidate, and 1992, when Bill Clinton was elected.
But white women have voted Republican in all but two of the last nine presidential elections. In 1992, they were evenly divided between the first President Bush and Mr. Clinton; in 1996, they voted for Mr. Clinton, 48 percent to 43 percent. And while unmarried women have consistently given their majority to Democrats, married women gave President Bush the majority in 2004.
“It’s about how much Democrats can maximize the gender difference and how much the Republicans can hold it down,” Ms. Carroll said.
The Constitution
In response to Kevin's questions:
Contrast the US Constitution with the Confederate Constitution.
A Temporary Solution To Exacerbate Future Problems
"The proposal would also suspend for two years businesses' ability to deduct past net operating losses from their state tax bill.
Although leaders said their agreement does not borrow money from local governments and transportation, it is expected to tap several hundred million dollars from redevelopment agencies around the state. San Jose officials have warned that doing so could jeopardize projects such as the planned expansion of the McEnery Convention Center.
The agreement is also expected to propose essentially borrowing billions of dollars in future years from an expanded lottery."
The new budget deal seems to delay California's financial burden, hitting the economy when "economists have little hope that revenue is on the rebound," M&C reported.
Mike Zapler continued, "Legislative leaders acknowledged the agreement was far from ideal but said the budget delay was inflicting real pain. The impasse caused billions of dollars to be withheld from schools, nursing homes and other institutions that rely on state funds. "'I would've liked to have resolved the problem," Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, said. "But the votes were not there. "... It was time to end this. I wish it would've ended differently.'"
Context questions about the reading
What parts of the rough draft were omitted from the Constitution? Did the writers ever express later regret about omitting/including articles of the Constitution?
Was the common law developed concurrently or previously? Did each state have its own common law or was there new federal influence in this law as well?
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Students of Government?
We’re reading, studying, internalizing all this material – the brilliance of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; the vitality of the Federalist Papers; the antagonism of Alexander Stephens; the wisdom of Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln – we are, or at least are well on the way toward becoming, true students of our country, our government, our politics. I find myself reflecting on the importance of these works and on the importance of understanding them and wondering about some of today’s political figures.
We know Barack Obama has a faculty for this history and these concepts and their current ramifications – he was a constitutional law professor, after all. And John McCain has demonstrated a thorough understanding of these as well. The same can easily be said of Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Mitt Romney, or Bob Barr, among many others.
But as I was reading, I asked: Can it be said of our current president? Or of Sarah Palin, for that matter? I would imagine the answer is “no” (or at least “not really”).
This isn’t an arbitrary or perfunctory attack on these leaders or on any others; it is not a typical “Bush is an idiot” rant and not even a matter of intelligence. It is a question of their familiarity with and understanding of the documents, ideals, and convictions central to the establishment and development of American independence, government, and conventions.
(This is also, it should be noted, not a question rooted in partisan discontent. I feel similarly about a number of political figures, including Democrats like Representatives Maxine Waters and Sheila Jackson Lee and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.)
Rather, it is a question – or two, really:
1) Do our political leaders have a facility with the important conflicts and questions of American history that produced those institutions, practices, and principles we still rely on in our politics today?
and
2) Does it matter?/Is it necessary or even important to their abilities as leaders in American government?
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Hockey Mom lacks understanding of the Bush Doctrine?
Sarah Palin's interview with Charles Gibson raises questions about her foreign policy understanding and the Bush Doctrine. Gibson asked her whether she agreed with the Bush Doctrine, in which she replied, "In what respect, Charlie?" Foreign affairs experts claim that as many as seven distinct Bush Doctrines exist which means her confusion may be understandable. Referring to Gibson’s question on preemptive attacks, Palin later responded, “If there is legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country. In fact, the president has the obligation, the duty to defend." James Fallows argues that Palin “has not been interested enough in world affairs to become minimally conversant with the issues.” This issue will not serve as ammunition for Obama and Biden if Palin manages to hold her ground in the future Vice Presidential debates.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Stealing His Thunder
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Alaskan Oil
Falsehoods
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Principles of the American Political Order
Now on to more serious things...
From the Cornerstone Speech by Alexander Stephens:
The prevailing ideas entertained by him [Thomas Jefferson] and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the constitution, was the prevailing idea at that time. The constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the "storm came and the wind blew."
On Monday , we briefly discussed how the Declaration hardly sprang all at once from Jefferson's pen. It went through drafts. You may find his rough draft at http://www.princeton.edu/~tjpapers/declaration/declaration.html. A key passage did not make it to the final version:
[The King] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s [sic] most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.
The invaluable Snopes.com corrects myths about the signers' fate. Their real story is compelling enough. No embellishment is necessary.
Palin Email
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/The_antiPalin_email.html
Monday, September 8, 2008
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Sarah Palin drawing big viewer numbers
Nielsen's blog is fascinating, you should take a look.
Friday, September 5, 2008
CMCers on the GOP Convention
Clifton Yin was a McCain delegate. See his blog.
Adam Kokesh was a McCain heckler. See the account of his removal from the hall. Here is video:
Earlier, Adam spoke to fellow Ron Paul supporters: