Filibustering

I think someone asked about the longest filibuster in class, so here's the answer: the record for a filibuster is 24 hours and 18 minutes, set in 1957 by South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond. If anyone has a LOT of time to kill, you can read the transcript in the Congressional Record, Volume 105.

Professor Pitney, if one of us tops this, does he or she retroactively get an A in your class??

Political Surgery: What Pictures Can You See?

Chapter 10 of Ellis and Nelson discusses the controversial practice of gerrymandering. I found a few congressional districts to visualize this process.

A Salamander?: the original gerrymander

Earmuffs?: Illinois's 4th congressional district groups together two Hispanic areas (Note: this is an outdated shot from 2003, but looks similar today)

Spaghetti?: the packing style of California's 23rd district provides for a safe Democratic seat

A soup ladle?: New York's 22nd district is careful to include urban centers of Democratic support in their largely rural grouping

A rabbit on a skateboard?: Illinois carefully skirts Republican neighborhoods as a bipartisan deal to create a safe Democratic district

source

David Brooks, "Obama Rejects Obamaism"

With the 2012 Presidential race heating up and candidates from the Republican party sizing each other up in debates, the natural instinct is to compare them with Obama. Can, and will, Obama be elected to a second term? His recent speeches and proposals have gotten mixed receptions, and many are wondering where the man they elected has gone. Many people thought Obama would do something similar to Clinton's "New Democrat" ideal and spend more time compromising and reaching across the aisle, but his policies have not supported this hope. Can he return to this style of government and campaigning? Is this what the nation wants? Is Obama a victim of circumstance? Is the incumbent advantage enough to give him the edge over whoever the Republicans choose to throw against him?

David Brooks is one of the most interesting, intelligent, and accurate op-ed columnists in the reporting world today (in my humble opinion). Here is an article about Obama's promises and how he believes Obama's governing style has changed over this past term in office.

More on Congress

Pro Forma Sessions

Congress on C-SPAN

The American Electoral Process: the influence of the Real "green" party.

Money talks. And as most Americans know, it holds a lot of say in politics; especially in elections. It can make campaigns successful by maximizing advertising, but also prevent fulfillment of campaign promises  by keeping politicians bound to the lobbyists that provide funding. Money's influence - often conflated with "corporations' influence" - is viewed as a potential threat to democracy, a fuel for corruption. Last year, the Supreme Court "ruled the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections". If this issue sounds interesting to all of you govaholics, there will be a presentation on Friday at Claremont Graduate University discussing it. Until then, what are your thoughts on (independent) corporate funding of campaigns supporting candidates? Should it be curbed? Does it result in an aristocratic structure?

The Sheer Brilliance of Direct Democracy

While direct democracy is great - things like this petition are now about to be "evaluated" by the Office of the President. Doesn't this speak to the ridiculousness of the current system?

Congress Part One

• The separation of powers may trump party


• House v. Senate v. President


• Madisonian observations

An article on congressional problems.

Congressional demographics

How a bill becomes a law.

Another version of the process:

Government Shutdown

Once again, we are witnessing shutdown politics in Congress. Controversy this time mostly surrounds the $4 trillion disaster relief budget. More information on these proceedings can be found here: http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/7884636-418/government-on-brink-of-shutdown-again.html

An article appeared in the Washington Post in March after Republicans proposed the "Government Shutdown Prevention Act," which stated that congressmen would not receive pay while the government was shut down. The article can be found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/is-the-government-shutdown-prevention-act-constitutional/2011/03/31/AFdkyvBC_blog.html

In light of what we have been discussing with the Constitution, what are some thoughts on the idea of government shutdown? What would the Constitution's framers have thought about the government shutting down because of controversy surrounding budget?

Alexander Hamilton rap

The Constitution and the Federalist

Background items:

• An essay on anonymity.
• Drafts of the Constitution.
• A brief history of Blackstone and common law.

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.

Concerns of war, peace, and security

• Federalist 5
• Federalist 8
• Federalist 9
  

Controlling power

• Federalist 10
• Federalist 51
• Federalist 47
• Federalist 48

Federalist v. Anti-Federalist

• Brutus
• Federal Farmer
• Federalist 1

A First Look at the Constitution

Richard Dreyfuss on the Constitution

If you like Amar's book, you can watch him talk about it on video here.

• The Articles of Confederation.
• The map
• The Constitution.
• The Constitution via C-SPAN clips

The Great Compromise:

• Virginia Plan
• New Jersey Plan
• Connecticut Compromise

Read these provisions from an actual constitution. How would you appraise them?

ARTICLE 118. 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. ...

ARTICLE 119. 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.

ARTICLE 120. 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 at state expense, free medical service for the working people and the provision of a wide network of health resorts for the use of the working people.

ARTICLE 121. 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...

ARTICLE 122. 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.

ARTICLE 123. 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.

ARTICLE 124. In order to ensure to citizens freedom of conscience, the church is separated from the state, and the school from the church. ...

ARTICLE 128. The inviolability of the homes of citizens and privacy of correspondence are protected by law.

Contrast the US Constitution with the Confederate Constitution.

Quote from today's Syllabus

I was reading the Jessie Jackson quote found on our syllabus for this week and I was struck by what he described as constitutional rights. In international human rights law and theory, there is an idea (created by Czech official Karel Vasak in the 1970's) that human rights can be divided up into three generations. The first generation is concerned with civil and political rights (freedom of speech, religion, due process, etc.). The second generation is focused on equality and items such as right to employment, health care, a living wage, etc. Third generation rights are focused on group rights and such as rights to self determination, cultural heritage, natural resources, sustainability, a healthy environment. It seemed to me that Jackson was saying how the constitution protected those second generation rights. Which, reading over it, I do not agree with. It appears that the rights protected in the constitution solely are comprised of "first generation" rights.


It is also significant that Jackson refers to the declaration of independence instead of the constitution due to its more idealistic nature and its seperate influence on American politics (as we have talked about in class). I would be interested to see what other people think about this. Do you agree with Jackson that those rights are protected by the constitution and/or the Declaration. Is the idea of different generations of rights useful or correct?

The President's Problems in California

Post Office No More?

I just read this article about the proposed future of the post office. I was curious, what do you guys think about the post office? Is it still an important part of society or can email replace "snail mail" for good? Should the government continue to run a failing business or should we rely on companies like FedEx or UPS for all of the mail?

http://www.stlbeacon.org/issues-politics/280-washington/112925-congress-urged-to-put-its-stamp-on-the-postal-service-crisis

The future of the Tea Party and/or other political establishments.

During the Q&A section after the panel discussion on the Tea Party yesterday, I asked what the panelists thought of the future of the Tea Party, whether it would turn out to be a fad, or if it would turn into a longer lasting political movement. To my surprise, the panelists seemed to agree that the Tea Party will be around for many years to come.

What do you think the Tea Party has in store? Considering the clout it has gained in the last couple of years, and that is has a general set of interests that will keep it animated for some time to come, as I believe several professors pointed out, what will it turn into? Will it become a standalone party? (which I doubt) Will it become a long-lived branch of politics like the 'neo-conservatives' of the right or the progressives of the left? The panelists noted that the tea party is by its very essence unorganized. Will they coalesce around a leader or leadership group if the Tea Party dynamic changes? Will they develop their own intellectual class like those in the standard Republican and Democrat parties? Do you see any other group sprouting up in a similar fashion in the next few years based on other views? What if we have a Republican in the White House two years from now? Will a leftist equivalent now form? Will the Tea Party be content if we have a President Perry? Please add any thoughts you have on these questions or the tea party subject on the whole, just keep it classy, as always.

More on American Civic Culture

• Comparative data on religion.




• Comparative data on evolution.




• A closer look at US attitudes on evolution.




• Faith-based community service.




• Philanthropy in the United States

The Internet and our Government

Hi Guys:

Just noticed that the White House had uploaded the specifics of the Obama Jobs Plan onto their website. It's a pretty interesting read, and seems to have a lot of great specifics that are normally missing from the public debate.

What I did find more interesting and curious though, is how the internet is shaping our modern governance system. While press releases and fact sheets about proposed laws and policies are now common, slowly, governments are starting to embrace direct input from their people in terms of initiatives and proposed laws.

In the United Kingdom, voters can petition the government online using a system called DirectGov. The United States is going to add something similar called "We The People", which allows people to post petitions, with the most signed petitions floating to the top and getting interest from the White House.

Seems interesting, but is it feasible?

US News (about politics, not college rankings).

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/09/13/gop-debate.analysts/
Who do you think came out on top? Is Perry really the frontrunner? Is Social Security really a ponzi scheme?


...And just in case anyone did not read about the recent college rankings...
http://cmcforum.com/news/09122011-cmc-ranks-in-top-10-best-liberal-arts-colleges-in-america

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 relevant data.

In June 2006, Barack Obama gave an important speech on religion in politics. See prepared text here.

First Essay Assignment, Fall 2011

Pick one of the following:

1. Find a recent (since June 2011) article pointing to a problem that Publius anticipated. (You may search newspapers at news.google.com.) Explain how The Federalist sheds light on the story. In this instance, is the political system working as the Founders hoped?

2. From the assigned sections, identify a significant claim by Tocqueville that was either incorrect from the start or no longer applies to the United States.

3. Here are some current proposed amendments to the United States Constitution. Pick one, weigh the arguments for and against, and explain your position.

• HJ Res 16: repealing the 16th Amendment
• HJ Res 17: repealing the 22d Amendment
• HJ Res 33: respecting the right to a clean, safe, sustainable environment
• HJ Res 53: setting term limits for Congress
• HJ Res 57: allowing states to call a limited constitutional convention
• HJ Res 75: regarding the use of foreign law in US courts

Whichever essay you choose, do research to document your claims. Do not write from the top of your head.

• Essays should be typed, stapled, double-spaced, and no more than three pages long. I will not read past the third page.

• Put your name on a cover sheet. Do not identify yourself on the text pages.

• Cite your sources with endnotes, which should be in a standard style (e.g., Turabian or Chicago Manual of Style). Endnote pages do not count against the page limit.

• Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you.

• Return essays by the start of class, Wednesday, September 21. Late essays will drop a letter grade. I will grant no extensions except for illness or emergency.

The hot button issue of the day.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gay-marriage-north-carolina-20110912,0,6393616.story

"Legislative instability is an ill inherent in democratic government... Almost all American constitutions have been amended within the lsat thirty years, and so there is no American state which has not modified the basis of its laws within that period." [Tocqueville, p249]

For a Frenchman, Tocqueville seems to have a pretty solid understanding of American politics.

President Obama Reads Psalm

When you watch this video, reflect on what Tocqueville said of religion in American politics.

The power that the majority in America exercises over thought

Hi everyone, I'm posting this article about 9/11 for two reasons. One, I liked it, and two, there's a part on the second page which I thought tied in well with the Tocqueville reading. Tocqueville discusses the power that the majority exercises over thought, pointing out that "The majority is vested with a force, at once material and moral, that acts on the will as much as on actions". (p.243) While reading, I disagreed (and still somewhat do) with Tocqueville's presentation of power of the majority in restraining free thought. However, the point about the majority (in this case the public) holding sway is illustrated in the article: "In the White House, President Obama has maintained tactics that were reviled when conducted by President Bush, including dramatically escalating the use of drones to zap terror suspects in Pakistan.

He has also bowed to public sentiment in ordering military tribunal trials at Guantanamo Bay for the chief engineers of 9/11".

What were all of your reactions to Tocqueville's claims about majority control of thought? Do you think it is as true today as it perhaps once was, and if so, are politicians bending to majority will?

Oh and here's the link to the full article:

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/09/11/2011-09-11_new_york_and_the_nation_observe_a_decade_of_mourning_and_a_decade_of_resolve_sin.html

The Republican Response

They were silent. They were silent as those to the left of them roared with applause over unemployment issurance. They were silent over the president's proposal to immediately pass a job bill. They were silent during, and they were silent after. The Republicans were silent as a familiar scene unfolded: a Democratic president gave a speech to a divided Congress.

President Obama's speech on Thursday was his fifth to a joint session of Congress in the last 2 and 1/2 years. To many, it was his most aggressive. He began pushing members to "pass the bill" before he even explained the anatomy of his proposal of $447 billion in job creating measures. Actions such as infrastructure spending and a payroll tax cut are estimated to create 1.9 million jobs.

Economists have begun crunching the numbers on Obama's proposal, and so far no glaring errors have come to surface. The mouth of the Republicans, John Boehner, even said that these measures "merit consideration."

But that is almost as far as the talking went on the Republican side. The House Republicans, enduring a near government shutdown and national default, perhaps decided it was best to finally seek common ground. Presidential addresses are somewhat of a rarity, and they are certainly politically intimate. Citizens who make their living off of denouncing the other party behind their back for a few hours suddenly become vis-a-vis. Aside from Representative Joe Wilson's famous outburst, tradition demands respect to the president during the elaborate rituals of an address. And so the Republicans chose their only method of dissent. When the other side got up to applaud on issues of collective bargaining or business tax credits, the Republicans chose to sit - they chose to be silent.

A great article describing our generation and 9/11

      I've made it a habit every year for the last couple years to re-read this article from Peggy Noonan about our generation with respect to the impact of 9/11.  I figure I should share it with the class.

The Children of 9/11 Grow Up

Thoughts on the controversy surrounding the September 11th memorial?

Hey guys!

I've been listening to a lot of strong opinions on the fact that first responders [NYPD and FDNY] are not invited to the upcoming September 11th memorial. The space constraints for the ceremony essentially forced the mayor to choose between inviting the families of the deceased and the first responders, of which he chose the former.

A shortened version of Mayor Bloomberg's defense of his decision can be found here:
http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2011/aug/19/bloomberg-911-ceremony/

NYPD and FDNY members have started a petition at change.org to repeal the mayor's decision. Information on this can be found at: http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/07/petition-seeks-911-ceremony-invites-for-nyc-first-responders/

So, what do you guys think? Should room have been made for the first responders, as in previous years?

Misquotations!

I don't know if this is really pertinent to out current discussions or whatnot, but this Yahoo! Featured post reminded me of the false Tocqueville quote that Professor Pitney mentioned and I read through it and thought it was a bit funny!

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/great-misquotations-the-famous-things-they-never-actually-said-2543520/#photoViewer=1

The Declaration, Continued

The Declaration (hyperlink versions)

Deleted Paragraph:

He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidels powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. He has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce determining to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold: 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.

Not a very happy forecast...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904537404576552871868770308.html

The Declaration

The Declaration (hyperlink versions)

Text of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Lincoln-Douglas Galesburg debate (forward to 1:05) -- Can you tell where the re-enactor screwed up?

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."

Deleted Paragraph:

He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidels powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. He has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce determining to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold: 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 Declaration shows up in current commentary.