Gun violence and gun control: Impact of the NRA

After watching the PBS Frontline documentary about the history and rise of the NRA's political influence answer the following questions.  Keep in mind this is an emotionally charged, controversial and sensitive subject.  Feel free to express your opinions, but be respectful of other opinions as well.

1. Identify two reasons why the NRA is successful in stopping gun control legislation.  Explain your answer.
2. If you were a Senator, would you have voted for or against the bill proposed by Senator Manchin? Would it depend on what your voters/constituents think? Do you agree that "something" has to be one about gun violence in America?  If so, what should be done?  If not, why not?
3. What is your opinion on the gun control debate in the United States? Is it more about ensuring our fundamental freedoms as American citizens or ensuring public safety? Why?
4.  Do you agree with the logic of Wayne LaPierre's response to the Newtown tragedy, in that "the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun"? Is the solution to the problem of gun violence at schools only a matter of providing better, armed security at these vulnerable places? Or is decreasing access to the type of military grade automatic weapons used in the shooting the answer?
5. Do you think that the writer's of the Constitution and the 2nd amendment anticipated it would protect people's right to own semi-automatic weapons and high capacity magazines?  What do you think is the intention of the 2nd amendment?  Or in this case does intention not matter?

Midterm Money Analysis

Go here to read the full report on how much money was spent in last years midterm elections.  It's a lot.

Political Parties and the Gerrymandering Issue

It is hard to deny that gerrymandering (rewriting legislative House districts to strengthen each parties hold on their respective districts) exists.  Check out this cool photo essay and take a look at some of the wacky shapes of these districts.  Like I said, it is hard to deny it happens.  Both parties do it, but many Democrats blame this practice is abused by Republican state legislatures.  The result is that the Democrats can not win back the House, despite having a majority of voters in many of the states where they hold far fewer House seats.

There are essentially two theories that explain the discrepancy between the number of Democratic votes cast in a state and the number of seats held by the Democrats in the House.  The first theory is the tendency for Democrats to move to urban areas, while Republicans typically reside in rural areas (people tend to congregate in like-minded communities as illustrated in the NPR article from a previous post).  This "Big Sort" builds up enormously lopsided, pro-Democrat urban districts that are few in number.  The Republicans win by small margins in their many rural districts.  The result is that, statewide, more Democratic votes are cast, but Republicans win more seats in the House (winning more seats obviously being the objective for each party).  The second theory is that it is caused by the practice of Republican state legislatures rewriting the district boundaries in their favor, making it impossible for the Democrats to make inroads in these Republican districts.  Read this NYTimes article by Nate Cohn (both "the Big Sort" and gerrymandering), this rebuttal by David Weigel (gerrymandering is the main cause for Democratic losses) and finally read this analysis by Jonathan Bernstein (Dems can't blame gerrymandering).  Answer the following questions and quote the articles in each of your answers to back up your opinions.  I understand this post is a bit more in depth than others and points will be awarded accordingly based on the thorough and thoughtful nature of your responses.  One and two sentence, yes or no answers will not garner you credit.

1.  What do you think?  Is it the "Big Sort," gerrymandering, or both?  There are three distinct opinions here, all backed up by their own analysis.  Who do you agree with? 
2.  Is gerrymandering (as a practice - by either party) fair?  Does gerrymandering compromise democracy in any way? 
3.  Do you have a better idea of how to split up districts?  Should there be a uniform way to divide people of a state into separate representative districts?  Search for campaigns against gerrymandering for ideas.
4.  Should the 'supermajorities' in the cities be broken up?  Are Democrats to blame?  Republicans?  Or is this just the way politics will always be?

An FEC first: catching criminal coordination

According to FEC rules, any superPAC must not coordinate directly with a candidate running for office in spending their money, as the are "independent expenditure only" committees.  For the first time, someone has pleaded guilty and faces criminal prosecution for spending unconnected superPAC money in direct consultation with a candidate.  Read this article from NPR an answer the following questions abotu money in politics.

1.  Do you think superPAC money plays too big a role in American politics?  Why or why not?
2.  Do you think that, concerning political advertisements, money=speech?  Should anyone be limited in the amount of money they can spend promoting their policy goals or attacking their opponents?  Why or why not?
3.  Read more about the Citizens United ruling.  Do you agree with the Supreme Court?  Why or why not?  Is it more an issue of censorship of political speech or curbing the influence of money in elections?  Which is a more pressing issue?

Like father, like son?

Rand Paul is a libertarian leaning Republican contender vying to stake his claim on the nomination next year.  His father, Ron Paul, has a sizable and very loyal following of supporters who emphasize civil liberties and small government.  Should Rand tap into this resource for his potential Presidential run?  Or is it too big of a risk?  Some of his father's policy stances are relatively controversial within the Republican voter base, so Rand is going to be walking a policy tightrope to try and garner the support of his father's base without alienating the larger (and electorally more powerful) Republican party base.  Comment on the article and relate it to the influence of political parties in America. 

Let the campaigns begin!

Read this NPR segment about Presidential hopefuls recent book releases.  What is the goal of these book releases?  Are they meant to provide an outline for their beliefs?  Give them a more personal touch before they get too much in the spotlight?  Is it meant to give them more free exposure?  How could these book deals backfire, or is it typically a win-win for the candidates and voters?  Who are the candidates trying to target with these books?  Why do they do it?  How does this shed light on the historically recent trend of candidate-centered campaigns?

Media? Biased? Noooo.

Take ten minutes to browse the Politics page of each of the following news outlets, NPR, FOXNews, MSNBC, and CNN.  Then answer the following questions.  Write in complete sentences.  You will want to look at the questions before you begin browsing, so you can take notes as you browse.

Take note of the format and presentation of the news stories. What is the top story of the day? Does it vary from site to site? What does this tell you about that particular sources political agenda?  Is the format meant to catch your eye or draw you to a certain part of the site?  Is it a dynamic or static approach?  Is there a difference between the private and public news outlets?  Why might this be?

Find two or three articles or videos that are reporting the same event, topic, etc. The goal is to find at least two articles written about the same event.

As you read, watch or listen, ask yourself these questions:
a. Is there any evidence of bias in the headlines for the story? Justify your answer.
b. Is there any evidence of bias in the sources used for the story? Justify your answer.
c. Is there any word choice you found particularly indicative of bias? Justify your answer.
d. What are the biggest similarities/differences between the articles you chose?  Be specific, citing at least two of the articles directly.

Finally, after you have located and highlighted possibly biased articles, and answered the quesitons above, consider the following:
a. If we know there is media bias, and can effectively "filter" what we read, does it matter that it exists?
b. Does public opinion influence what the media reports on or does the media influence public opinion?

Can anyone hang with Hillary?

Just as a number of Republican candidates are jockeying for position during the invisible primary (the months before anyone officially declares their candidacy) testing out their positions and promoting their electability, there seems to be a lack of candidates (aside from Hillary Clinton, who still has not officially declared her intentions) on the Democratic side that seem up to the task of competing against Clinton.  Read (or listen) to this article on NPR, along with he corresponding sound bites from her possible Democratic rivals and answer the following questions.

1.  Do you think any of these candidates has a chance against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary?  Why or why not?
2.  What is a primary and what are the top five states a candidates needs to win it?
3.  Pick a sound bite from the candidate you selected above and explain how it illustrates a major strength or a major weakness for that candidate.  ?Use an actual quote from the soundbite to illustrate and support your point.
4.  Who would you personally like to see run against Clinton in the primary?  Even if you are a Republican, what race would you like to see and why?

Public Opinion Poll research (required post)

Public opinion polls are a relatively recent development in politics to try and track American public opinion about particular issues.There are two major pollsters that are generally seen as conducting legitimate scientific polls and have gained credibility among most people for the accuracy (or at least representativeness) of their surveys.  To get credit for this post you must perform the following tasks.

Go to Gallup and/or Rasmussen Reports and find a politically relevant poll (that no one else has used so far, this will be easy, there are literally hundreds of polls) that interests you.  In the first line of your response, write the name of the site you accessed and the exact name of the poll you chose as it appears on the site, so no one else can choose it.  Be sure to answer in reference to the particular poll you selected.  I do not want to see generalizations or you will not receive credit. Answer the following questions:
     a. Why did you pick this poll?  How is this poll politically relevant?
     b.  What general concepts (the Constitution, freedom of speech, legitimacy, political parties, media, elections etc.) does this poll relate to in class?  How might it help us better understand those concepts?
     c.  In a sentence or two, describe the main findings of the poll. Are the results of the poll surprising to you? Why or why not?
     d.  Is there any part of the poll that you would consider biased? (in how they ask the questions, how  they present the results, research methods they used, etc.)  Why do you consider it biased?  If it is not biased, explain why you think so.
     e.  Why might politicians be interested in using these particular statistics from your specific poll?  In what ways might it benefit their campaign strategies or voter outreach programs?