Discussion 8

Prompt: 
What five (or more) important traits or qualities do you want your elected representatives to have?  

My response: 

Five important traits I want my elected representatives to have:

(1) Track record of fiscal responsibility

(2) Love of our country and our people

(3) Pro-life/pro-woman

(4) Pro-education

(5) Works well to coordinate efforts regardless of partisan affiliation

(6) Makes sensible decisions

(7) Not capricious; stands firmly on principles

Discussion 6

Prompt: How should public elections be run?

My response:

I have seen a lot of dissent about the electoral college. Many think that elections should be determined by popular vote alone. However, I think that the general populace has proven that it isn't willing to put in the time required to study each candidate and the issues thoroughly enough to make a good decision. The general public is very easily swayed by media and pressure from others. For the presidential election, the electoral college is an attempt to compromise between general election and representatives electing the president. However the electors in the electoral college nearly always vote according to party lines since they are largely chosen by political party. I honestly feel okay about the technical way our elections are run because I think that they do strike a needed balance. I wish however that it were more clear or publicized widely who the electors are and how they were determined to be in that position. I also wish there were more propositions and referendums on big issues.

Instructor's Notes- Nominations, Elections, Campaigns

Instructor Notes for Chapter 9 – Nominations, Elections, & Campaigns This is always an exciting time to be studying campaigns and elections when the USA is approaching or in the midst of another long campaign. As was noted in the textbook, the USA system for choosing candidates for office is unlike the process most other nations engage in: the American electoral process is complex, time-consuming, and—for many citizens—ultimately confusing. I personally believe that we would all be well served if they would greatly shorten the campaign season and take the big money out of campaigns. Last week I pointed out that  the Corporate owned media in our country is a great disadvantage to citizens, but an even greater threat to our democracy is the Supreme Court Ruling that designated corporations as persons.  (For those of you interested in the law, there is a fascinating account of “So how did it come about that court reporter J. C. Bancroft Davis wrote that corporations are persons in his headnote? And why have one hundred years of American—and now worldwide—law been based on it? Here are the main theories that have been advanced regarding what happened.” "Unequal Protection": The Deciding Moment Friday, 08 April 2011 11:49 By Thom Hartmann (Links to an external site.), Berrett-Koehler Publishers | Serialized Book http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/375:unequal-protection-the-deciding-moment (Links to an external site.)) Allowing corporations to spend unlimited money in campaigns without disclosing the donors until long after the election is essentially like allowing corporate interests to buy our government in the opinion of many scholars and others. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/30/citizens-united-justice-stevens_n_1557721.html (Links to an external site.) Complete Text of Justice Stevens' Dissent on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission                http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/pdf/08-205P.ZX (Links to an external site.) Try to pay more attention than usual at this time to what you read, see and hear concerning the election and the campaigns. Keep in mind what we learned about the various media outlets available in our study of the media and try to select the most credible sources to obtain information. Lastly, be sure that you are registered to vote in the upcoming election at This link works for any address and any voter in the US. sponsored by League of Women Votershttp://www.vote411.org/ (Links to an external site.)   If you don’t have a photo ID in the state of Kansas, you will not be able to vote this November. Hopefully, you have all heard about the laws recently passed in a number of states that have essentially restricted the vote. In my opinion, these new laws are ill-advised and wrong but barring court blocking them (not likely in Kansas) many states will be affected by these laws in the upcoming election. Here is a video that does not support the new voter ID laws. Voter Protection or Voter Suppression? (Links to an external site.)

Here is another short video on the money that is spent on campaigns - where does it all go anyway??

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/politics/2012/01/27/eitm-campaign-finance.cnn.html

Web Critique 6

Website Name: Federal Election Commission www.fec.gov (Links to an external site.)
Operated By:  The Federal Election Commission
Funded By:  U.S. Government, allocated by Congress

The website of the Federal Election Commission is a great resource to anyone involved in elections: candidates, treasurers, organizations, attorneys, parties, donors, and more. Even the average citizen can gain some helpful information from the FEC website. For instance, the Quick Answers page offered me helpful information about election finance that I wasn’t aware of, and the library page (located at the bottom of the site) offered easy access to older publications. They have pretty full disclosure of financial matters all right there on their website. I felt that the FEC does help those closest involved with election finances by having all of this information available and easily accessible online. Especially for treasurers, they have a specific tips section to help them fulfill their legal obligations. I feel that one good addition may be to have a learning section for curious citizens. It was all very confusing for me, as I have little experience with organizational or election finances. If they truly want to offer full disclosure, it may be helpful to have a small part of their site devoted to helping people understand the basics of what they are presenting on their website.  They do have in their Press section, a tutorial for reporters to use the website, however something geared toward informing citizens would be great as well.