Young Voters: Data and Trends

Look at this and engage in just a bit of thought.

Add to this information the fact that young voter participation increased in the 2018 mid-term election (over the 2014 mid-term) by about 10 percent. (That does not predict future performance, but is relevant when considering the prospects for future performance.)

What impact might these facts have--at least potentially--on the 2020 elections?

How to Spot Fake News

Three More Interest Group T/F Questions

We can talk about the answers to these in class on Monday if you would like. I believe you'll get them with a bit of careful thought.

Logical Fallacies

Some of the most common--avoid them. This chart was created by Michele Rosenthal. If the chart is too small for you to read, go here:  https://imgur.com/gallery/d5FjTtR

Why People Don't Vote

People who can vote but do not fall into a few categories.

1) Apathetic. These are people who do not believe their vote will matter, or who do not believe their efforts can lead to change, or who are not interested in social and political topics. (As mentioned in class, you may not be interested in government, but the government will be interested in you.)

2) Fearful. Some people are afraid because they don't know how to cast a vote (sometimes even physically, because they have never seen it done), or are wary because they don't understand the issues or candidates. Some fear family or other social pressure to vote in a certain way. (The remedy for fear is often education.)

3) Poor. This includes people who are making a living but have so many things to do that they forget or do not prioritize registering and voting. Most poor people in America are working poor, and they may be constrained not only by income but also by time. Also, many poorer people have less education, and higher education levels correlate directly to political participation.

4) Young. Citizens who are 18 to 29 do not vote at the same rates as older people. In some cases they have not yet been educated about the process; in others, they seem unaware of how government policies and leaders might affect their lives. And some overlap with previous categories. Many young people who do not vote eventually become older people who do.

5) Disaffected. These are people who find the political process or American political culture distasteful or even disgusting. They may be highly interested (not apathetic) but turn their backs on basic principles of participation for a variety of often ideological reasons. (One cure for this approach is to live for any length of time in a dictatorship. Then the limitations of American democracy might seem fewer than the opportunities.)

6) Disenfranchised. Some people do not vote because they have been unfairly removed from the voter rolls, or prevented from voting on some pretext on the day of voting, or intimidated from going to the polls. Yes, those things happened even in the election of 2018.

Which category is shown below?

How to Google It

What They Said: Politics and the Media

More On Symbolic Speech (Testable!)

We did not have enough time in class to fully explore the topic of symbolic speech, in which actions or symbols or art or something else make political comment without using words. Symbolic speech is generally protected. For example, students in the late 1960s who wore black arm bands in high school to protest the Vietnam War were supported by the courts. Armbands are not disruptive in any way but make a statement, in this case political--so, schools that banned the armbands were suppressing free speech and were ordered to stop.

Other cases are more troubling, and it's helpful to remember that an illegal act masquerading as symbolic speech won't fly. Throwing bricks through store windows to protest U.S. trade policy still involves destruction of property and can't be excused as symbolic speech.

What about the examples below? One is protected and one is not. Take a look, and then check the comments below the photographs.

The first is burning draft cards to protest the Vietnam War. This action was not protected because the draft card was considered the property of the U.S. government and destruction of it could result in penalties. (Of course there were other ways to protest the draft or that war.)

The second is burning an American flag. Unless the flag was stolen (a crime), the Supreme Court ruled that burning a flag as political protest is protected speech. Which do we hold most dear, the flag, or the First Amendment? The court sided with the First Amendment. (Note: very few, perhaps fewer than a dozen, flags are burned in political protest in the United States annually.) Some have called for a constitutional amendment to ban U.S. flag burning. When this pops up as a matter of national attention—which it does every five or ten years—loud argument and controversy ensue. The conflict is about how far symbolic speech rights go.

Reminders and a Visual

This will be the last blog post of the week; they will resume on Monday, June 24.

REMINDER 1: your first paper is due on Monday. If you have any questions about the paper, please email in a timely way; I'll be checking email at least once a day this weekend, and plan to check it Sunday early in the evening. If you ask a question by (let's pick a time) 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, you'll get an answer before the paper is due.

REMINDER 2: the first test is on Tuesday. We will spend a little time on test preparation during Monday's class. You may start preparing your note page (one 8.5 X 11 page, both sides, and please do not photocopy handouts--you may rewrite or retype anything on one of the handouts but may not shrink and compile them to make a note page, which is what one creative student did years ago which spurred me to establish a rule; that's one (not so good) way to live forever in an instructor's memory).

Now, a funny and not-funny visual. Different regions of the country face different challenges; states face different natural disasters. This diversity of trouble definitely has an impact on both federal spending for disasters and state government preparedness.

Civil Rights and Liberties Preview

On Monday we'll do test prep and then focus for most the class on civil rights and liberties.

The following three images provide hints about some of the things we'll discuss.

Beer Costs More in Some States

Why? In part because different states tax beer at different rates.

This happens because we have a federal system in which laws about some subjects routinely happen at the state level, while other laws on other subjects typically are covered at the local level. Or the federal (national) level.

This puzzles some European visitors who simply do not encounter different beer taxes in different parts of their country. Americans are generally accustomed to a federal system in which different states often have different laws. We'll explore some more of those in class on Thursday as we cover federalism.

For now, here's a map of how much beer is taxed in the 50 states. California is in the middle of the pack (terrible pun). Which state has the highest beer taxes? The lowest? Does this information help you to decide where to go (and not go) on vacation?

Slides About Amendment Categories From Class

The Constitution and Slavery

Delegates at the 1787 Constitutional Convention argued about slavery on and off that entire long, hot summer.

Many Northern delegates wanted to abolish slavery, or at least phase it out over time. Most Southern delegates, however, wanted to continue the practice because it provided an enormous economic boost to their economy. Some delegates thought slavery was immoral; others regarded it as a justified subjugation of inferiors.

Ultimately, attempts to end slavery failed, mostly because of fears that if slavery was abolished, then several Southern states would leave the country. The Constitution therefore said little on the topic--the convention chose not to use the words "slave" or "slavery" in the final document.

Here's what it did say.

1) The import of slaves from outside of the United States could not be ended or limited until 1808 (about 20 years in the future). In fact, in 1808 Congress did ban the import of slaves though this law was often violated and few of the illegal importers of slaves were caught.

2) Escaped slaves were required to be returned to their owners, even slaves that escaped to anti-slavery Northern states. That law was often disobeyed, too.

3) Slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person for purposes of apportionment (counting how many people live in a state to determine how many representatives that state would send to Washington) and taxation (tax bills were sent to states on the basis of population, unlike the personal income taxes we pay in the present). Counting a slave as 3/5 of a person seems barbaric to nearly everyone today.

In effect, except for a few provisions, the Founders punted on slavery. What was the result?

Most of the 35 million or so people who were slaves in American history were in bondage after 1787. Their lack of rights or choices and their enormous suffering are hard to calculate or imagine.

The controversy over slavery would dominate American politics for eight decades and stir up turmoil and anguish in our national politics.

The Civil War, largely about a nation half slave and half free, would result in perhaps as many as 700,000 deaths. The aftermath of that war, the collapse of the Reconstruction period, still haunt our politics and our national identity.

The failure of the Founders to resolve this issue is perhaps the greatest single failure in the history of our country and reverberates down to the present. They came up with many brilliant solutions to problems, some of which have withstood the demands of time and change, but let us not overpraise them, as the late Assoc. Justice Thurgood Marshall said. They were fallible.

And the issue of slavery shows us how entirely mortal they were.

Candidate Yard Sign