THREADED DISCUSSIONS!!

 

 

Threaded Discussion 10-01-03

 

I disagree about how the “private funding of Congressional campaigns is poisonous venom in American politics” because it is a free country people should be able to fund their campaigns if they have the money.  The whole idea of having the campaigns funded by the different parties is for the people who could not afford the campaigning.  This means that they have to “take a loan” for the funding so that they can get into the Congress.  When they borrow the money from the parties, then there is the whole debt thing.  This is where the person would have to repay the party for their favor.  This normally means that they have to agree with some views that the parties pose.  Sometimes this can be a bad thing, so I believe that private funding would help the people campaigning be more for the ideas that they stand for instead of having to be controlled by the party they are being supported by.  America should stand for freedom.  We should not have to be controlled by the rich who support us, especially in elections to help decide our future.  Term limits are a good idea so that everyone who wants to be in Congress would have a chance to be in Congress.  Yes there are some times when there is a really good person, that supports the people and is always working to make us happy, but this person will not last forever; therefore, they might as well just serve his/her term and then pass the baton on to the next person. It is not like there is no one out there that can make America better than it is.  This would give people the opportunity to change the country for the better.  This would help rule out the selfish politicians that make their service a career.  If a company wants to donate money to a campaign that they see would benefit them, it would be okay.  It is not always necessarily right, but it should not be condemned because this world is not perfect.  Perhaps they will support someone for the better, but that is a very rare case, but it is always possible. 

 

Response – Discussion

 

I definitely agree with you on the beginning about how it should not matter whether the money comes from a private party or the big parties. I never really thought about it, but I do agree that we should be able to know where the money is coming from. We should have a right to know where the candidate is getting the money to campaign without the help of the rich democrats or republicans. This would help in deciding who we should elect. It is also a good idea to be able to drop the person from the race because they will not identify the source, this would help get rid of the “lies and deceit”. When people run for anything in our government their lives should not necessarily be private or will not be private; we should be able to know a lot of things about them. We have a right to know who is running our government. I suppose that term limits could be bad because, yes, it is true when change happens people go crazy. Sometimes the elections are for the better, but like this last presidential election it was a horrible election because we had a great president, and now we have a “great” president (sarcasm). Sometimes the term limits would help get rid of the bad government officials. Sometimes they get re-elected and people do not realize how much they are destroying our country.

Sadly it is true that there is no real way to control any of this. There is always going to be that one bad seed that messes up the good system. It is only human nature for people to be evil. That is the way that we are. Sometimes people overcome the evil in them, and others just stay “evil”. Many times it is the politicians that are the evil ones; ironically, they are usually out there in the races just for the money because one could be very rich by this. That is why they should have a term limit.

 

Threaded Discussion- Democracy

 

There are a lot of flaws in our democracy like how the people do not actually get to decide on what things are going on in the United States.  People have to elect the people who go in and run our government.  This would work out nicely if only those that the people elect would tell the truth when they run.  These people tend to lie about the things that they stand for.  Those running in the elections tend to make promises that they normally fail to keep like not raising taxes, putting more money into the school system, or having more wealth fare benefits to seniors.  These promises attract the people, and then when the person gets elected they fail to follow what they promised.  In California’s case, Gray Davis promised Californians a lot of things, and he failed at it while he brought our economy down.  The Democracy is also flawed in that we can have a recall of the election.  Gray Davis is not the best governor in the United States, but he should finish out his election.  This is a flaw to our government because it brings up the question of how far is too far in the government? How much say should the average person have for the government.  Another thing that is flawed with this government is the fact that we have such a strong freedom of speech.  It is almost as though one can say or do anything wrong, but argue freedom of speech which would make them get off for the wrong doing that that person has done.  The idea of democracy is solely based on the idea of “for the people and by the people”.  It is a great idea.  It is something to dwell on; coming from the monarchies with the kings and queens, the idea of having freedom is so great in a person's mind.  Having the ability to decide your own fate is mainly what this democracy is all about.  The government is meant to protect its people, and the people obey the law.  Since the law is made by the people it is perfect.  Everyone gets to have a say in how the government will be built.  This is by far more important than the simple little flaws that are basically caused by people who only think about their own happiness instead of thinking about the people as a whole.  People in the United States cause flaws in our government because of their self-centered lifestyles.  Overall this government is a great idea, and it is by far better than any other.

 

Response-democracy

 

I disagree that there is no perfect government.  I believe that there are imperfect people who control the government.  Each government has its good sides and if the ruler or rulers were not human, and were also perfect, then the type of government would be perfect and everyone would be happy, but since that is never going to happen I agree with what you are saying.  This is true about the majority thing also because sometimes there are people in the majority that disagree, but are forced to agree with the majority.  Many times the majority is not always right.  The Majority kind of follows one person or a smaller group of people.  So it would always depend on that small group of people.  Sometimes this is not good because that group of people could be bringing the majority of the people down by their ideas.  They may make bad decisions that would bring down the economy of the area being ruled.  The voting thing about age is also true because, yes, many young people do not know how to be able to take care of themselves let alone choose a governor or president or some type of ruler rule the entire country.  Children would not be able to understand the politics and such that actually go along with elections etc.  We would definitely not be able to discuss this entire thing about the government if there was any other type of government.  Fortunately we live in this world, and it is a great thing to be able to be free with your thoughts and express the way that you would want.  Although there are many times that people take “freedom of speech” for granted and sometimes the idea of freedom of speech is stretched.  For instance, the fact that people can walk the streets swearing and cussing up a storm and not be in “trouble” with the law is acceptable, but it is not okay to hold the Ten Commandments in front of a building.  That is also freedom of speech, and it is not fair that one would be forced to rid the Ten Commandments which is not hindering anyone’s thoughts.  Sometimes things just do not make sense in this world, but it is true that democracy is definitely the best type of government in affect today.

 

 

 

Patriot Act Threaded Discussion

 

The Patriot Act has gone a little too far in some cases.  Since 9-11 there have been stupid things like the Patriot Act that have happened.  Most of the dumb things that have happened are toward the Middle Eastern people.  Now someone from the Middle East can’t walk down a street without getting looked at, as though they are a terrorist.  The only real good thing about the Patriot Act says that there will be no discrimination against ANY American, which includes Arab Americans.  Following this is difficult though, because if you are a suspect then basically the government can come into your home and invade your privacy.  The thing that makes me really pissed off is that Bush could have possibly prevented the whole 9-11.  If that was prevented, then there would be no Patriot Act.  It is kind of a wake up call telling the government that they need to protect the people better, but it’s not like people aren’t committing crimes that are not terrorist acts.  It is important for us to be protected by the government, but since we have had these civil liberties that we are used to, everyone is pissed off because they are being taken away.  Personally I have not really noticed any difference in my life rather that 2 hour lines at the airport just to pass through security, but sadly these people still fail to protect the people.  This Act to me is a sot of waste in time and money if the security people aren’t even going to care enough to actually do a good search.  What the guy did with the box cutters was a good idea to kind of make a point, but the problem is he did not really think through the problem.  There are many people out there scared to death now, just when the airlines were beginning to get back into shape.  People are going to be more afraid to fly knowing that it is so easy for one to sneak a knife on the plane.  The guy should also realize that with him doing that and going AGAINST the written law, he must realize that he is going to be punished.  He cannot just think in pre-9-11 mode because a lot of things have changed, and the penalties especially have changed.  He should not have done what he did with the box cutters.  He should have done something legal to make his point, although it would not be as great a point.  The girl on the other hand is a complete idiot, and should definitely do some time in jail for her stupidity.  She was being idiotic thinking that the law is not going to do anything to her if she threatens the life of a person or a group of people.  I know she did not mean to, but her reasoning for it is especially dumb.  I think that some things in the Patriot Act are ridiculous, especially since they are just burdening the people of the US more than it is really helping them. 

 

 

Response

 

Well very true I definitely agree with you, that the guy should go to jail for it.  After all he realizes how relaxed the security has gotten, but it sort of proves him wrong because he got caught (or rather turned himself in) so the Patriot Act is still protecting the people in a sort of way.  HE is going to go to jail for a longer period of time now because of it.  This kind of shows that it sort of helps, but its kind of like “Why can’t you prevent it before it happens” thing that the guy was trying to prove.  It is ridiculous how horrible the security is in some airports.  This may help terrorists get weapons or bombs onto a plane.  Once you get through a place like John Wayne or Greensboro, then you are behind the security.  They cannot really get you.  I think that if security is going to be tough on major airports, they should be just as tough for small airports.  This is kind of a thing that makes us think how stupid the terrorists are.  They are not dumb, which is and to think that we believe that they are dumb enough to go through a maximum security airport when they can go to the next state or even 20 miles to get passed security.  I definitely agree that there is no real way that terrorism is going to end.  “Terrorism” has been occurring all throughout History, it is not like it can be easily removed in a few years and forgotten.  We will never forget that day, and we should never forget how important it is to be cautious, but there are many times people are too cautious, and cause problems with US citizens, like longer lines in the airport.

 

 

Discussion - Voting

 

The people that are most likely to vote are those who are much older, and have been around the United States for such a long time.  People between the age of 35- 50 are more likely to vote than the 18-30.  Most people who are young adults generally do not care about voting because they do not feel as though they are really affected by voting.  They may be educated, but they may not really care.  If they are not educated then they are just kind of out of the loop and do not realize the importance of voting.  The people over the age of 50 that do not vote are more likely to have not been educated.  They were not well educated in the past, and now they are still not educated, and they no longer really care.  The races that are more likely to vote would be rich Caucasians, because they will have likely been educated in the past.  The people who do not vote are more those who weren’t educated, which unfortunately ends up being the minorities.  There are so many people in United States, and it is the small percentage that is educated.  The future consequences are likely going to be that the gap between the poor and the rich is going to increase.  This is because generally the more educated one is, the more successful he/she is.  The more successful that a person is, in the United States, the more money they will have.  When the rich people only vote, they are going to vote so that they will be better off in life.  The only way to change this would be to educate everyone.  Maybe have people who go around the United States and basically educate the masses about the importance of their vote.  Then maybe people would possibly start by registering.