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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

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Moving to Tocqueville

  • Thursday: Tocqueville 340-363, 525-530; Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address; Obama speech.
  • Questions on assignment? If you have any problems submitting your paper via Sakai, simply email it to me as an attached Word file. (not a Google doc or pdf).
  • Citing articles.  Do not say that the author of an op-ed or journal article is the publication in which it appears.  Sometimes stories come from wire services.

Anticipating the Constitution: “In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury." (Allen, p. 246).


"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

Allen closes with a discussion of equality.

Tocqueville

More on the fake quotation  -- an op-ed -- Bill Clinton using in 2020!




The very first line of Tocqueville's introduction: “No novelty in the United States struck me more vividly during my stay there than equality of conditions" (p. 9)
  • What did that phrase mean to Tocqueville? 
  • He was not blind to slavery -- discussion on Thu.

Maintaining a democratic republic

  • Circumstances – physical isolation (remember when we discuss presidency)
  • Laws – starting next week
  • Mores (moeurs)–what are mores? (p. 287)

Religion

"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.) 

 Civil Religion

Lady Gaga sings the National Anthem two weeks after the January 6 insurrection.  Note that she turns and points to the Capitol flag as she sings "...our flag was still there."


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