Power in Politics, Economy, Government

           The idea of having power in politics is almost an unfair promise. I have seen many candidates running for Congress that have made empty promises. Obama himself had stated that he would make public schools a better place with more jobs, but recently in Colorado I have seen more school closures. In Arizona, there were a few schools that closed this year, and here in Jefferson County, there is talk of more school closures. I feel that the power struggle found in politics alone is what affects our economy and government. I do not feel that our economy is failing, yet, but I do believe that there could be more done to help ourselves. We wake up to oil spills in our oceans, trees being cut down due to beetles, more housing developments being placed, but never finished. The economy seems to have enough power to create all of this, but not enough power to undo what has been done and should be undone. This leads to the government itself. The government as a whole acts like it has enough power to do whatever it would like to do. However, I feel this is not true because without the economy doing well, the government has nowhere to go. If the politics are weak, then so is the economy. I feel that the government can have a straight relationship to the people of the economy because if the government is taking our money to cut down the trees or clean up the ocean, then that leaves the economy with nothing. The chain reaction proves that everyone has power, but the government has enough power to be able to take it away from the economy and politics before it has had a chance to build. As I started to look at this I started at the bottom with politics, but is politics really the bottom of the chain when the government can be responsible for creating a poor economy?

(I still do not have my book, it should be here this week :( )

Challenges and Opportunites of Democracy

            I feel that some of the opportunities the democracy is has is basing decisions of what has happened in the past. Our democracy has been around for quite some time allowing people to realize what has and has not worked in the past. This can allow for politicians to make better decisions or to sit down and figure out what might work better for America’s future. On the flip side this can promote challenges as well. The challenges can be based from the bills that have not passed, but they would like to see them pass. For example, the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell bill has been passed around Congress before, and was back again last year. The Democrats had failed to get the 60 signatures it needed to be approved (Jaffe, Dwyer). This brings our Congress to face a challenge when bills are repealed. President Obama stated “…finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are” (Goldman). Now the Congress and military are facing challenges with current military members and how they feel. Some that are gay and lesbian have spoken out, while other members are simply filling out surveys so Congress can get a better understanding of how they feel. This brings our democracy an opportunity, though, because they are able to repeal this act and then look at studies of actual military members and family members (Jaffe, Dwyer). I feel based on this example our democracy is opening up and being a democracy by letting the people that will be affected have a say in what is going on through Congress. If more of these actions took place with the public (survey’s etc.) I feel more people might want to be educated in politics and vote in elections. So why does it feel like the public is left out of a lot of choices that our government makes for us?

Dwyer, Devin; Jaffe, Matthew. (2010). Sentae Republicans Block Defense Bill, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senate-vote-repeal-ban-gays-military/story?id=11685658&page=1

Goldman, Russel. (2009). Gays Applaud Obama for Pledge to Appeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/State_of_the_Union/gays-applaud-obama-pledge-repeal-dont-ask-dont-tell-policy-state-of-the-union/story?id=9687078

Politics

I do not enjoy politics because I find them very confusing and just another stressful part of life. I do vote based on what the candidates say, but as we see they're not very truthful! Hopefully this class will open my eyes and change my view!