Americans must consider carefully when making decisions about who to vote for and put into office in Congress and the White House. We need to consider the traits that are most critical for a person to lead our nation. I personally want someone who is above average intelligence. I want someone with a clear vision and a steady hand as our Commander in Chief. It is important to have a leader who understands international affairs and will not embarrass our country or get us into an unnecessary war. I feel it is important to have a leader who believes our government is important and understands its importance to the great majority of Americans. This is a very important decision.
The League of Women Voters is nonpartisan national organization and they actually have a guide online to assist people in this important decision making. They state: “Candidates can be judged in two ways: the positions they take on issues and the leadership qualities and experience they would bring to the office. Your first step in picking a candidate is to decide the issues you care about and the qualities you want in a leader.
When you consider issues, think about community or national problems that you want people in government to address. Also consider what party the candidate belongs to and the typical stance the party takes on the issues. For example, you may be interested in national security, government funding for student loans or unemployment.” You can see the full article at http://www.lwv.org/content/how-judge-candidate
Monday, March 30, 2015
Web Critique 7
Website Name: www.cfinst.org
Operated By: The Campaign Finance Institute
Funded By: Foundation grants, individual contributions
Operated By: The Campaign Finance Institute
Funded By: Foundation grants, individual contributions
The Campaign Finance Institute website is devoted to presenting online the research and education materials produced by the Institute. They describe themselves as “The Nation’s Leading Think Tank on Money in Politics in Federal and State Elections” and state that they are “Nonpartisan, Policy-Relevant and Timely” and are “Meeting Peer-Reviewed Standards” and “Serving Public Needs”. They have a plethora of useful information about campaign finance for Federal and State elections, including Presidential and Congressional elections. Some types of research included are: analyses of money in elections both recent and historical, the cost of winning different types of elections (by year), information on small donors, including citizens, information on donor diversity, how campaign finance has changed over the years, particularly since the Citizens United case, implementation of 527 groups, and BCRA, the impacts of different theoretical changes in donations, and much more. They include a press section, easy email sign up, and tables and charts to help users view data over periods of time. I particularly appreciated the Law section, because they make it really simple and at-a-glance. I also appreciated the sections offering information and tools dedicated to citizens. Finally, a website that has high-level political material, but is also willing to offer education to regular citizens.
Instructor's Notes- Interest Groups
| Interest groups now have a tremendous influence on our government and you will learn about this as you study this chapter in the text this week and go through the class activities online. The activities of these interest groups not only affect the manner in which our nation is governed via our government, they can actually affect each one of us as citizens living in this country. Here is an interesting article that you should read and think about as you consider the many ways that interest groups spend their funds to influence and affect the American public. The article is entitled: |
Discussion 7
Prompt: Should former members of Congress be free to become lobbyists once they leave office?
My response:
My response:
Yes, for two reasons.
(1) To restrict this would be infringing the freedom of both the interest group and also the ex-Congressperson.
(2) The whole reason for hiring ex-members of Congress is that they are knowledgeable about how the government works. They are highly desired for their experience. It makes sense for interest groups to hire members of Congress. Interest groups are fine and are an important part of the pluralist model. We don't want unqualified people running interest groups in America. I think it's best if we have great minds working in the interest groups and then they can all duke it out together. :)
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.
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
Complete Text of Justice Stevens' Dissent on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/pdf/08-205P.ZX
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/
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? |
Here is another short video on the money that is spent on campaigns - where does it all go anyway??
Web Critique 6
Website Name: Federal Election Commission www.fec.gov
Operated By: The Federal Election Commission
Funded By: U.S. Government, allocated by Congress
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.
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