final

My favorite section of the class was probably one of the early sections. Either on the different branches and their specific roles or federalism was pretty interesting too. I know you said in class you hate when people say they aren't political and I realize that in some way everyone is but before this class i was probably the least political a citizen could possibliy be. Bartletts article was definitely talking about me , although I definitely believe that a lot of his generalizations were outlandish. I do believe that these were largely ingnorant generalizations and this is mainly backed by the turnout of the Millennial generation in this past presidential election. However, this generation is comprised of people that have characteristics that Bartlett was refering to and before this class I was definitely one of them. The least interesting portion of this class was probably the chapter about the media. To me as big of an impact that, that particular area may have on politics its not the juicy part that talks about issues and how things work. It simply is how politics is shown to Americans and the controls the government has on them. I dunno, just was not that interesting to me for some reason.

My knowledge of government before class was struggling! I mean in history classes I learned about the make up of our government and all that but current politics and the details and all the little areas that are behind the scenes and that make politics go today were foreign to me. I feel like my knowledge has improved immensly and that I atleast have a general, if not detailed, overview of all of American politics from its history to present and whats to come. I also have a much more driven passion to get involved and continue to broaden my knowledge on politics. It is something that I think I have begun to take much more pride in since the beginning of class.

I touched on this earlier and spoke about my beliefs of Bartlett and what he said about our generation. I think that it was definitely a geralization, however, I believe thier to be some truth to it. I think we are lazy and caught up in a lot of areas of life that don't really matter and do not think we are nearly politically involved as we need to be. I do, however, believe that a lot of people in our generation, hence the turnout for the presidential election, are not like this and are extremely passionate about politics.

I can do a lot of things to make my commitment to this country stronger. The most important thing that I can do is start to participate politically and try and be heard. Try to make a difference and fight for what I believe in. If I sit back and allow my ignorance on the way this country is ran continue I will have no medicare, social security, and this country will probably eventually fall to china or another country on the rise. This is what will happen if we all do not become more politically active. We have to continue to hold our government accountable and make them make changes that will prolong America's dynasty!

I thought this class was awesome and it defnitely opened my eyes to so many areas of life that I need to become more involved in. Thank you soooooo much for everything!

First and foremost definitely felt good to get out of the classroom. Of course you make things as interesting as possible but sometimes that 2 1/2 hours everyday can get kind of tough... I learned a lot about Mclean county and the politics here. Well maybe more about the history than anything but the history definitely serves as a foundation to why politics are the way they are today... Mainly I learned about how mclean county and bloomington got started... First starting with the native americans, then to different migrants like the upland southerners, yankees, Irish, African Americans, and the anitbaptists. I learned a great deal of knowledge about important milestones that occured right here in bloomington such as lincolns lost speech and important court cases that orginated here and were later taken to the supreme court. I learned about significant people that made this town go and I also learned about popular occupations back in the day such as alton railroad manufacturer that actually was one of the largest employers here in mclean for sometime. In addition, I learned how power shifted from small towns that housed railroads and served as connections to the outside world into bloomington normal that held most of the political power following the shift. Honestly, my visit to the museum was relatively circumstantial considering I probably would have never done it on my own. However, I truly enjoyed the experience and now am motivated to do things like this in my hometown. I really haven't been to museums since I was little and am realizing that at this point in my life I would benefit from it the most. Thanks for setting this up for us! It was really a cool experience!

Mclean county

Honestly I know very little about McLean county. I couldn't even tell you its boundaries or even how large or small it is. One thing I do know is that both bloomington and normal are both located in it, I think... The reason that I know so little about this topic is because I have only lived her for 2 years and have never engaged poitically in any aspect during my years here. To be honest I do not even know a whole lot about cook county outside of the fact that I grew up in its boundaries and its pretty large. I do, however, expect to learn a lot about it tomorrow! It definitely matters that I don't. First of all, any well educated individual is going to take pride in being informed about current events and situations that are going on around them. Just because I am not from here does not mean I should not take an interest on different topics and areas that could potentially affect me. In addition, I am a politics minor which means I should definitely take an interest in the county in which I currently reside!

According to the analysis I would most resemble Ghandi and Nelson Mandela. On the outside that seems pretty respectable but I don't know that I would go that far. I definitely am on the left on a large majority of issues but I also feel like there are a few issues that the right supports that I better identify with. Does that make make this analysis valid??? I don't know hard to say... I am definitely a democrat but I wouldn't say I am the most liberal of democrats.

When I visited each website I saw exactly what I expected. On the democratic website I saw basically about 5 or 6 articles on Obama and an article on sonya sotomayor. Thats about nothing too exciting but everything was pretty much the color blue. On the republican website I noticed that there was a comment saying democrats are advancing their agenda you are now under their scrutiny. I thought that was interesting since they are the party that is kind of supressed they have a reference to the democratic party, whereas, the democratic's website says nothing about the republican party. Besides that nothing else really stood out besides the democratic website is much more detailed and put together from my observations.

The politics of Sonia Sotomayor
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22980.html

BEN SMITH & JOSH KRAUSHAAR the authors of this article both set a tone of support for Obama's nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Although they definitely included several different quotes from republicans on the opposing side, thier ultimate stance was quite clear. The article speaks about the positive national implications that may come from this nominee. Although in a large portion of the article it refers to how much Obama has pissed republicans off, it seems that he may have touched and won the support of both women and hispanics as well as a wide variety of other liberals.

This article does really touch on her backgroud or merit but it definitely touches on her ideology. It portrays it to be pretty liberal with a huge emphasis and belief of racial identity. It seems as though she has made bold statements in the past arguing that a hispanic woman could make better decisions than a lot of "white males". Although we discussed in class the relatively moderate stance that she has the idea that I got from this article is that she is relatively liberal. The most obvious portion was that that argued how much this nominee will help the democrats and if she was simply moderate it wouldn't make too much of a difference.

I feel that Obama's nominee is definitely a good one and although in class we spoke of her moderate stance in politics I feel that if nothing else a statement on how diverse and far America has come is definitely enough. I feel that this is more important than an extremely liberal judge being added to the Supreme court. This is a huge stride for both women, hispanic people, and our nation as a whole.

Blog #3 (Congress)

First off... I had absolutely no clue Congress dealt with such a wide variety of issues, especially in one day. There schedule is crazy and the types of bills that they oversee have such little effect on our daily lives. That is definitely one thing I learned from this website. I mean you always assume that congress passes bills that have significance in your everyday life but through my observations I have learned most of them will never even effect you. My previous knowledge of Congress was that they pass laws such as no texting while driving or no cell phones while driving. Through observation of that website they deal with issues on how small bussiness effect the economy and hearings to examine pension plans and such. I also saw a bill that was about a national missing childrens day. I just never knew the jobs of congress were so detailed and intricate.

Another extremely interesting aspect of Congress that I was completely unaware of is the separtation of certain issues amongst different subcommittees and committees. The way I envisioned it was the house or senate sitting around in a group discussing different bills. In no way is this true. On the website there are a list of several different subcommittees and committees assigned to certain issues. Considering the amount and different types of bills and issues that congress deals with daily this method seems much more efficient.

Overall, I don't really think I would like to be a part of Congress. I think it is definitely way too much responsibility for the amount of compensation received. That is not to say that some people are not so passionate and patriotic that they would like to play a role in decision-making, however, this would not be something I would enjoy. The different issues are so broad and almost repetitive seeing as though it takes so long to simply pass a bill. I'm really glad that I took a look at this website because it definitely opened my eyes to a new perspective on congress. It has caused me to have a great deal of respect for their hard work and broad range of responsibilities, however, I no longer look at the career in the same lime-light that I once did, from a personal standpoint that is.

Blog 2

The County that I currently reside in is Cook County and was established in 1831. It was the 54th county established in Illinois. Cook is an urban county and makes up the upper northeaster section of Illinois. Eight hundred local government units exists within the boundaries of Cook County. In addition, cook has a population of 5.3 million people. The State Representative of Cook County is Deborah L. Graham. Graham is a democrat and holds a Bachelors of Arts in Bussiness Adminstration from Robert Morris College. She was born and raised on the west side of chicago and was avidly involved in community service. She is currently a proud member of the AFSCME which assists with the relocation of individuals and bussinesses. A few of her committee assignments include; Committee of the Whole, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation and Motor Vehicles. The State Senator of Cook County is Don Harmon. Harmon was Born in Oak Park, a suburb of chicago and Graduated from Unversity of Chicago with a J.D. and M.B.A. He is currently married with three children. A few of Harmons commitee assignments include; Property tax reform, Environment and Energy, and Judiciary (chairsperson).

Neither of these two have been in the news as of late...