POLS-15 FINAL STUDY GUIDE

The Constitutional Authority for the President’s Major Rules 

• Head of state - 

• Commander in chief - 

  • Article II, Section 2: “The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states.”

  • Ex. President Trump moves funds from military programs to build sections of the Southern border wall 

• Chief diplomat - 

  • Article II, Section 2: “He shall have power, and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators present concur.”

  • Article II, Section 2: “He shall … by and with the consent of the Senate … appoint ambassadors [and] other public ministers and consuls…” 

  • Article II, Section 3: “He shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers.” 

• Chief legislator - can suggest laws to Congress

• Head of his/her political party  - represents the party as the candidate after being chosen in primaries and thereforth during the presidential elections

• Chief executive - Head of the executive branch meaning they execute laws and is head of all executive agencies

Potential essay question: Which power do you consider most important and why? 

What is the executive branch’s main function?

• Main functions are listed in Article II of the Constitution:

  • Broadly worded discussion of the presidential power 

  • President’s constitutional power has expanded over time beyond the framers’ intent as the problems faced by the country became national 

    • War powers: More than 85 percent of U.S. military engagements since World War II have been waged solely on presidential authority

      • No Congressional declaration of war

    • Foreign policy initiatives (president has the greatest power here)

    • Domestically, Presidents use “executive power” to permit or prohibit use of funds provided for by acts of Congress

      • Further Legislative authority includes the use of the veto and the ability to propose legislation  

Please also know these terms:

• Executive actions - 

  • Executive order: a presidential directive that implements or interprets a law passed by Congress 

  • Executive agreement: a formal agreement that presidents make on their own with a foreign nation 

    • Can be voided by a later president 

    • Treaty requires Senate approval 

• Cabinet - President’s cabinet are the heads of the 15 executive departments, appointed by the president, confirmed by the Senate. Cabinet is no longer used as an advisory body. 

• Political appointees - those appointed to positions in federal government by the President, VP

• Civil service - body of government employed in civil occupations 

What are Congress’ main responsibilities?

• Appropriate funds - Through its constitutional grant to enact law, Congress makes the laws authorizing federal programs and appropriating the funds necessary to carry them out 

• Sets taxes

• Confirm judicial nominees 

• Pass “necessary and proper” laws - the authority to make the laws necessary to carry out the national government’s powers 

How does a bill become a law?

• Very slow and forces compromise, very few bills become laws (though this was built this way by the founders)

• Process (respective to each group)

1. First introduced to the House or Senate

2. Referred to the committee of either House or Senate

3. Sent to the floor for discussion of amendments (to change) and a vote 

4. Sent to the conference committee

5. A vote on the conference report (still agree with it?)

6. President opportunity to sign or veto 

   1. If veto, opportunity for House to override 

You should know these terms:

• Congress - bicameral legislature (House and Senate)

• House - The House of Representatives is comprised of 435 seats distributed among the states according to population. (Theses seats are reallocated every 10 years after each census)

• Senate - 2 per state 

• Majority/minority - each party gets a leader, with the majority being the party most represented in Congress, and minority being the other party 

• Filibuster - Bills are subject to unlimited debate, a tactic used to delay or block a vote on a bill, achieved by one or more senators speaking continuously and avoiding the vote from moving forward (Senate requires 60 votes to overcome and move on) (ex. Literal singing, speech, anything that keeps them entertain to stall) 

• Terms of office

  • House: elected every 2 years 

  • Senate: elected every 6 years (⅓ senators at a time)

Please be familiar with these different types of legislating:

• Delegate vs. trustee model - 

  • Delegate model believes representation should be a direct translation from the people to the representative - do exactly what the people tell you what to do (we elected you, you do what we want) 

  • Trustee model believes representation should give the representative ability to use their own judgement, even if it means it being different to the public opinion (we elected you, you know best)

• Collective vs. constituent representation 

  • Constituent representation is the legislators duty to represent the interest of the specific voters within their district elected.

  • Collective representation is the representation by a group for a broad community/group. 

Which court system hears most everyday criminal cases? 

State Courts 

Which court system decides whether a law violates the U.S. Constitution? 

Federal Courts

How do federal judges get appointed?

After a vacancy, nominated by the President. The Senate then considers the nominee and votes yes or no. 

How long do they serve? 

For life in good behavior 

You should know these terms:

• Civil/criminal law - Civil involves disputes between parties seeking compensation for damages, while criminal involves prosecuting individuals for committing crimes such as breaking laws

• Precedent - A source of the law based on the idea of standing on already decided cases - used by cases in consideration of past court case decisions to influence their approach/interpretation/decision to the one currently being presented. 

You should be familiar with these Supreme Court decisions - arguably the most important (good) ones in history:

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

• Courts can strike down laws

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

• Government can’t segregate schools by race

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

• Government must provide lawyer if defendant can’t afford one

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

• Defendants must be advised of their constitutional rights

Loving v. Virginia (1967)

• States can’t criminalize interracial marriage

New York Times v. US (1971)

• Government can’t stop a news story from being published

Roe v. Wade (1973)

• Government can’t outlaw abortion

US v. Nixon (1974)

• President can’t use executive privilege to hide evidence

You should also be familiar with these Supreme Court decisions - probably the worst in U.S. history:

Dred Scott (1857)

• Enslaved persons have no legal rights

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• Governments can segregate society by race

Buck v. Bell (1927)

• Government can forcibly sterilize disabled persons

Korematsu (1944)

• Government can force racial groups into internment camps

Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)

• Government can criminalize same-sex intimacy

• What are the biggest items in the federal budget?

  • The spending is $6.8 trillion 

    • Social security - 21% 

    • Medicare 15% 

    • Interest on debt - 13%

    • National defense - 13%

    • Health - 13% 

    • Income Security - 13%

    • Veterans - 13%

• Which age group in America benefits most in the federal budget? Why?

  • Biggest programs benefit older Amercians most because they are the most politically active group

• What does it mean that more than half of the federal budget is on autopilot? Is this a good or bad way to budget, in your opinion?

  • Large portions of federal spending is determined by laws and regulations that are set on tradition rather than appropriated by Congress determinations per year - mandatory spending. 

  • Good way to budget because it provides consistency and organization, without having to determine if to spend on something or not, it just does

  • Bad way to budget because it is not representative to the evolving needs to be reflect the people's needs in allocation best

• Please be familiar with these terms, be able to define them, and to spot examples:

  • Federal debt - total amount of money the US government owes through borrowing, including accumulations of past deficits and surpluses

  • Federal deficit - difference between what the government spends, exceeding the revenue in a single year, yearly measure

• Entitlement program - mandatory spending on programs such as Social security, medicare, medicaid where funding is determined by the number of eligible recipients 

• Discretionary program - funded annually by Congress based on what is considered appropriate meaning the funding is optional and subject to annual approval 

• A progressive tax - tax systems where rate increases as income rises - higher incomes pay larger percent of income in taxes

• A regressive tax - tax systems where rate remains constant or decreases as income rises - lower income individuals have higher burden

• What are some big tax loopholes? What economic class(es) benefit most from the tax code? Why?

  • Congress has written hundreds of loopholes into the tax laws that tend to benefit higher-income people, because they pay no federal taxes at all.

• Is the tax rate a good way to measure a person’s or corporation’s tax burden? Why or why not?

  • Not a good way to measure a person’s tax burden, because it is not accurate to how much people actually pay. Those that pay less in reality end up paying more than those that should pay more based on elitist status. 

• Which states are net “takers” from the federal government - and which states are net “givers?” What are the implications of this trend?

  • Net “takers” South Carolina, North Dakota, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Hawaii, Mississippi, New Mexico, Kentucky

  • Net “Givers”:California, Massachusetts, Wyoming, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Utah, Colorado, New York, Kansas, Ohio, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Delaware

  • Trend - those in “giver” states subsidize (financially support) “taker” states with our tax dollars. CA gets back under $1 for every $1 given to Washington while South Carolina gets back $7.87 per $1 sent (unproprotional) 

• What is political disinformation?

  • Political disinformation is when false information is purposefully shared (different to misinformation as no malicious intent is held) 

  • Political disinformation is novel and interesting - social rewards for sharing in attention

• Is it new, or has it always been a problem?

  • Not new, has existed since 44 BC Octavian mounts - successful smear campaign against Mark Antony 

  • Older people believe and share disinformation  at higher rates due to memory loss/cognitive decline, popularity of disc information sources like facebook, and the existence of less basic computer literacy to fact check

• Who creates it and why?

  • Created by satirists (those who ridicule/exaggerate to expose and criticize people in politics and topical issues) whose intention is  steering a political agenda or seeking to make money 

  • It is designed/relying to reach us emotionally and not intellectually 

    • Confirmation bias feels good (dopamine hit) 

    • We are more likely to spread bad news than good news 

• How can we be smarter consumers of information? What techniques can we use to check for disinformation?

  • Check fact checkers - viet factcheck.org, factchequeado.com 

  • Check snopes.com

  • Check the source 

  • Do a reverse image search 

  • Read beyond the headline 

  • Check the author 

  • Check the source material 

  • Check the date

  • Consider it might be satire 

  • Apply critical thinking 

• Sacha Baron Cohen has done a lot of smart thinking about disinformation: What is his thesis? Whom does he believe is responsible for fixing the problem?

  • Social media platforms are a threat to democracy, and must regulate their content like traditional media outlets do - there are standards and practices in what we can and cannot say or do

• Possible Essay question: Please also consider your own views on this challenge: How can we tackle the problem of political disinformation? Whom do YOU think should be held responsible? How do we balance the threats of disinformation with the rights of an open society?

• What are interest groups? 

Any organization that actively seeks to influence public policy - differ from a political party in that parties address a broad range of issues 

• Why do they exist?

Interest groups influence/persuade elected officials to enact policy they want, that by organizing themselves they have a better chance of being heard. 

• Who belongs to them? Why do people join them?

  • 75% of Americans belong to at least one interest group

  • 3.51 average Americans belong to more than 3 interest groups

  • People join interest groups to be organized and make change - they are a constitutional right of free speech, assembly, and protest

  • Interests are advocacy groups, labor unions, and think tanks but as well corporations, foreign governments, state and local governments, even faith groups

• There are tens of thousands of interest groups representing every conceivable issue/cause

• Economic groups - those that focus on economic purposes such as jobs, higher wages, profits, or protection of an occupation (Business groups, labor groups, farm groups, professional groups) 

• Citizens groups/non-economic groups - single issue groups motivated by what they regard as worthy purposes (Ex. civil rights - NAACP, environment protection, etc) 

  • Can be ideological meaning representing a theme/ topic issue in long term (ex. racial equity) 

  • Can be practical meaning efforts are specific to cause and effect desired (ex. justice for police brutality victims) 

• How do interest groups work? Please be familiar with these 5 major strategies and what they mean:

1. organize - type of outside lobbying = increasing your numbers by encouraging group members to contact their representative, promoting their message through advertising and public relations 

2. Litigate - take to court cases that will help strengthen the reason/significance of your  policy! Great evidence.  

3. Public protest - type of outside grassroot lobbying = encouraging group members to contact their representative through public demonstrations  

4. Lobby - Efforts by groups to influence public policy through contact with public officials 

• Two main lobbying strategies: inside lobbying and outside lobbying

  • Inside lobbying: based on group efforts to develop and maintain close (“inside”) contacts with policymakers

    • Ex, Developing contacts with legislators and executives, providing information to key officials, forming coalitions with other groups 

  • Outside lobbying: bringing public (“outside”) pressure to bear on policymakers from grassroots lobbying and electoral action

• Modern lobbying rests on supplying officials with information - arguments and evidence backing their position 

  • Lobbyists must understand both the issue under consideration and the policy process 

  • “Revolving door” between lobbying firms and government 

• The targets of inside lobbying are officials of all three government branches - legislative, executive, and judicial 

5. participate in elections - type of outside lobbying = campaigning for a candidate with support by money and endorsements - these candidates are expected to help support their cause. And Voting!!!

• In general, who are the most powerful, biggest interest groups in America today? What are some of the ways we can measure this?

  • Google - we measure this by numbers of lobbyists on the payroll = 103 (has the most)

  • PhRMA - measure by spending amount = $92 million in the first 4 months of 2020 alone (the most)

  • AAA and AARP - measure by number of members = AAA (60 million) and AARP (39 million) 

Please consider these questions:

• Has immigration to America always been restricted?

  • Yes, the reaction to Hispanic American population was segregation, threats of deportation, and violent (“Juan Crow” Era)

• What is the general trend of Hispanic immigration in America? Asian immigration?

  • Both had backlash immediately in discrimination, some extent of violence, and bans of immigration 

• What were the main goals of each movement?

  • 1945: The Black American civil-rights movement began after WWII and set to enforce the guaranteed rights that courts refused to enforce to Black Americans including the three main goals of the movement

1. Integrate public spaces 

2. Full voting rights 

3. Equality in housing 

• 1945: The Hispanic-American civil-rights  

1. Farm workers’ rights 

2. Fair immigration laws 

3. Equitable schools 

• 1964: Asian-American civil rights era 

1. End discrimination and social stigma 

2. Reparations for internment 

3. Culturally relevant college curricula 

4. End the Vietnam War 

• What tools can social-change movements use to win their rights?

  • The 1945 Black American movement used organizing, lobbying, litigating, public protesting, and winning elections (all non violent)

  • The 1945 Hispanic-American movement used organizing, protesting/boycotting, lobbying, and litigating

  • The 1964 Asian-American movement used organizing, protesting, lobbying, and litigating - was less radical 

Please be familiar with these terms/events:

The 1945 Black American movement

• Reconstruction

  • 1865 - After the Civil War that abolished slavery, but period still was determining the legal status of African Americans, trying to rebuild the nation and integrate everyone into a new Union society 

• Jim Crow laws

  • State and local laws enacted by Southern states enforcing discrimination and racial segregation against African Americans 

• Racial covenants

  • “That the said land or buildings theron shall never be rented, leased or sold, transferred or conveyed to, nor shall same be occupied exclusively by person or persons other than of the Caucasian Race”

  • Clauses that prevent individuals from purchasing and occupying property based on their race or ethnicity 

• Redlining 

  • Discrimination practices that has banks refuse financial services like mortgages and insurance to racial and ethnic minorities - legalized during Jim Crow laws and blocked Black and minority households from homeownership = racial segregation 

• Brown v. Board of Education 

  • Banned segregation in schools = integration in schools 

  • Beginning of the end of de jure discrimination (discrimination based on laws)

• Civil Rights Act of 1964

  • Law that didn’t allow for any discrimination in connection to inter-state commerce - stopped discrimination in any public space, and any segregation in business such as in restaurants  

  • All persons are entitled to equal access to public accommodations 

  • Medium-size and large firms cannot discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in the hiring, promotion, and, wages of employees

  • Some forms of discrimination are still lawful

    • Example: church-related schools can take religion into account in hiring teachers

• Voting Rights Act of 1965

  • Before 1965: 

    • Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 granted African Americans the right to vote - ending voter suppression laws

    • Blacks were disenfranchised by white-only primaries, rigged literacy tests, and poll taxes 

    • In the mid-1940s the Supreme Court declared that whites-only primary elections were unconstitutional

    • Twenty-Fourth Amendment in 1964 outlawed the poll tax

    • Two years later, the Supreme Court banned literacy tests  

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited discrimination in voting and registration - Ended the literacy test 

    • Empowered federal agents to oversee voter registration 

  • States were prevented from creating election districts that deliberately diluted the minority vote

    • Weakened significantly by the 2013 Supreme Court decision Shelby County v. Holder, which invalidated portions of the law - was a provision that said that states that had a history in racial discrimination voting had to preclear any and all change (ex. Move a polling place) had to get get approval from the Government, to ensure state changes in voting procedures did not affect minorities

• Fair Housing Act of 1968

  • In 1968, Congress passed legislation addressing discrimination in housing 

    • Prohibited redlining, the refusal of mortgages from banks for homes in certain neighborhoods, primarily those with large black populations 

  • Strong patterns of housing segregation are still apparent 

  • African Americans and Hispanics still have more difficulty obtaining mortgages than whites with comparable income levels 

The 1945 Hispanic-American movement

• “Operation Wetback”

  • Immigration law enforcement initiative to remove undocumented Mexican immigrants in California 

• The grape boycott

  • Labor movement initiated by farmworkers demanding better wages and working conditions 

• Mendez v. Westminster of 1946

  • Strikes down segregated schools for Mexican children 

• Immigration & Nationality Act (1965)

  • Country quotas → skills and family unification 

• Immigration Reform and Control Act (1986) 

  • Legalizes many undocumented immigrants, tightens hiring rules 

• Prop 187 - backlash to the Hispanic Civil-Rights Era 

  • Aimed to restrict undocumented immigrants from accessing public services like education, healthcare, and social services (blocked by courts)

The 1964 Asian-American movement

• Japanese internment camps

  • During WWII, Executive Order 9066 evacuated Japanese Americans from the West Coast and imprisoned them in internment camps 

• The Korematsu decision

  • Court case that allowed imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WWII

• Chinese Exclusion Act (1892)

  • Extended the initial 10 year ban on Chinese laborers entering the US for another 10 years 

• The model-minority stereotype

  • “Unlike other groups, (Asian) Americans were expected to be quiet and behave and thus did not… express the anger and indignation and accompanied their racially subordinated status”

• Loving v. Virginia of 1967

  • Strikes down laws forbidding intermarriage 

• Vincent Chin’s murder - beaten to death hate crime 

And note these conclusions from the 3 movements we studied:

• Government can be a force for good or bad.

• Americans are generally supportive of immigration - BUT

• White America is also highly ambivalent about people of color

• Times of stress often inspire xenophobia, racism

• The cycle repeats: progress → backlash → progress

• Movements inspire, influence each other

• One community’s legal win often benefits others

• Opposition tries to pit groups against each other; solidarity defeats this attempt

• Public opinion/High visibility is a key factor in social-change movements

Key facts about CA's budget and government:

• Education is the single biggest expense in California’s budget

  • Health is second, then human services

• These facts are largely due to decisions our government made a long time ago…

  • Prop 13 plunged taxes to local governments, which shifted a lot of education costs to Sacramento

  • Redlining, racial covenants, zoning laws, many regulations have made housing unaffordable, requiring Sacramento to grapple with huge problem of unhoused

• California state government is in single-party Democratic control; the national Republican brand has become so unpopular statewide that they rarely win seats

• Gov. Newsom is a rising Democratic star; many see him as a likely presidential contender

• California's political history can largely be told in 3 parts: (1) Chinese workers, (2) the railroad, (3) explosive growth (and its backlash)

• Please be familiar with the major changes to California's political system from the Reform/Progressive era

  • Political parties became weakened 

    • Party conventions replaced by primary elections 

    • Local elections became nonpartisan, meaning no party was next to candidate names as an information shortcut for voters 

    • “Party column ballot” replaced - all mixed 

    • Crossing-filing allowed - decisions based on individual, not party 

  • Civil service replaces patronage jobs (replacement of the winning party’s opportunity to give government jobs to its supporters as reward for victory, instead jobs are not chosen not off political party but off merit)

  • Direct democracy

    • Recall

    • Referendum (voters can nullify a state law) 

    • Initiative (voters can enact a state law or amend constitution) 

• Please also be aware of the several major rounds of California's growth (in population & wealth) since 1850

• Please be familiar with Prop 14, Prop 13, and Prop 187. What did each one do, and what demographic events fueled these movements?

  • Prop 14 (1964) - explicitly allows discrimination in housing 

  • Prop 13 (1978) - cuts property taxes for older homeowners, slashing revenues for local governments 

  • Prop 187 (1994) - denies all public services to undocumented immigrants, requiring state employees to report undocumented persons 

The two most important things to know our healthcare system is that 

1. It’s a for-profit enterprise (part of the free market economy - many insurances exist trying to compete for our business - we pay for their services). Other democracies have issuance be government owned or government covered by citizens portioning part of their taxes to fund services, covering everyone

2. It's not a system (systems are centralized and collective to one central coordination - healthcare is much more complicated and separated/fragmented)

Health care history: 

• 26 million Americans still have no health insurance 

• Most insurance does not cover all needs 

• Tying health insurance to a job terrible idea - unemployment = no safety net because no health insurance 

• Americans pay a lot more for prescription drugs than anyone else 

• Out health outcomes are not the best (by far) 

• US medical care is most expensive in the world + US pays a lot more for prescription drugs than any other country such as Canada and UK (Triple to Quadruple)

Why do we stick with a broken system? 

• We have very good acute care = elites are happy, elites are primary actor and audience to government (realistically) 

• Commitment to capitalism/dislike of government regulations 

• Belief that free market drives innovation 

• Political power of medical-care interest groups 

• Beliefs that paying customers incentivize efficiency 

• Political incentives make changes risky for elected officials

“Medicare for All:” what is it? 

• Private health insurance goes away 

• We all pay taxes into a government fund for health care 

• Hospitals, clinics, doctors remain in private practices; government certifies all that want to participate in the new system 

• Each of us gets health-insurance card 

• We see any government-certified provider as needed, no extra change 

Pros? 

• No more insurance premiums 

• Everyone has health insurance 

• Health insurance is complete - no more gaps 

• Likely: a healthier nation 

• Likely: cheaper - no more paperwork 

• Great economy of scale: government can cap costs for medical care and prescription drugs 

• Maybe also: a more responsive, accountable system? 

Cons?

• Taxes go up More government bureaucracy? 

• New government responsibility; if it flops, taxpayers are on the hook 

• Runs counter to our commitment to capitalism 

• Could politics sneak into medical care? 

• Will people overuse a system if it's “free?”

Possible essay question: Consider the pros and cons of the “Medicare for All” system, are you for or against it? 

Key takeaways: 

• In America, health-care is a for-profit enterprise: insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies can charge what people are willing to pay

• It’s also highly fragmented. Administrative costs are very high

• Many people get insurance through their work, which turns out to be problematical

• We pay the most for health care among similar countries, but have the worst health status

• But the high end of our medical-care system is excellent (if you can afford it)

• Almost everyone agrees our system is broken, but our political system makes change almost impossible

• And our system of federalism doesn’t really work to solve a problem of this size/complexity

Following 9/11: 

• US Invades Afghanistan (10/7/01)

• Congress passes PATRIOT Act (10/26/01) - cuts civil liberties in effort to better coordinate government security among agencies and increase penalties for terrorist acts - by doing so expands definition of security acts to US and stops money laundering

  • More government power to survival 

  • Government can imprison people illegally 

  • Government can target people doing nothing illegal 

  • Erodes privacy rights 

  • Erodes due-process rights 

  • Reduces checks and balances 

  • Reduces transparency in government 

• US opens prison at Guantanamo Bay (1/21/02)

• US invades Iraq (2003) - triggers catastrophe

• Abu Ghraib photos leak (2004) - shows US torturing of suspects)

• ISIS forms in Iraq at resistance to US invasion. Remains active today (2004)

• President Obama tries to close Guantanamo Bay prison (2009)

Inflection points (Bad decisions?):

• Neglect of growing threat overseas (isolationism)

• Guantanamo Bay detention center

• Iraq invasion

• Decision to torture

• Assumption that all countries want to be “liberated”

• Expectation of quick fixes, post-invasion/Ignorance of complexities in other regions

• Rush to pass new laws

The decisions our government made after 9/11:

• Squandered historically strong national unity and international sympathy

• Compromised American values

• Allowed our government to lie to us

• Diminished our global power

• Turned us from the undisputed good guys into bad guys

Questions to consider:

• Did our government's actions after 9/11 make us safer?

• Some experts argue that our biggest national security threat is internal. Do you agree?

• What if any rights are you willing to give up for the promise of more security?

• Is the lesson from 9/11 that we should be more involved in international affairs, or less? 

  • The US focused more

American democracy faces a number of challenges. Please be familiar with these, and be able to give and spot examples:

• Big structural problems

  • Original vision of our country didn’t include most of us 

  • Power is diffuse and progress is slow 

  • Key political institutions are undemocratic

  • Voter suppression is rampant, money floods elections

• Poor citizens’ participation

  • Low voting rates

  • Distrust of basic facts

  • Declining awareness of basic civics

  • Highly vulnerable to disinformation, conspiracy theories 

• Declining guardrail institutions

  • Presidential openly challenges rule of law, we may be heading toward a constitutional crisis 

  • Congress is gridlocked and powerless

  • Political parties are weak 

  • Media is becoming more corporate, and more risk averse

  • Supreme Court is becoming more and more political  

Please also consider: Do you agree that American democracy is working - or is it slipping away? These are the key features of a democracy; do we have them?

• Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms

• Freedom of association, expression, and opinion

• Access to power within the rule of law

• Periodic free and fair elections

• A pluralistic system of political parties and organizations

• The separation of powers

• An independent judiciary

• Transparency and accountability in government

• Free, independent, and pluralistic media

What if any reform(s) do you think might help improve our democracy?

• Full voting rights/End voter suppression

• End/curb money in politics

• Abolish/Improve the electoral college

• Fix the process of drawing congressional districts

• Require 1-2 years of public service from all young people

• Switch to proportional representation or ranked-choice voting