Monday, April 2, 2018

"Stupid Questions" from 2305

These are the answers that I got for the stupid question question in 2305. I'll address these in upcoming posts - but many of these can be answered by simply reading the textbook

- Why is the electoral college important? Why does it agree with the general public most of the time but not all of the time.

- Why do churches not have to pay property taxes? Or is that a rumor? I have always been curious about that! Thank you!

- What is the difference is how much "we the people" should trust our government vs how much we actually do?

- How does the president get elected to his position?

- Why do the members of Congress still have their jobs when they cant balance the budget by the deadline?

- How influential is the candidate’s party to his or her decisions when she or he is elected? What impact would it do to his or her career when the official decides against what the party stands for?

- I'm still a little confused about how an election works...Like what steps are taken in the process.

- The US Supreme court justices are appointed for life as required by the Constitution. The implication here is that these justices have the most stable jobs in the nation. Only the Congress has the power to impeach them; and historically, only one of these justices, Justice Samuel Chase, was ever impeached by the House of Representatives in 1804, and later acquitted by the Senate in 1805. First of all, does it mean that none of these justices are ever found corrupt? If some of them are ever found corrupt, how are they made to individually account for their corrupt decisions? And finally, how are victims of such corrupt decisions compensated?

- One thing that I am still not understanding about the people who wrote Constitution and the Declaration of Independence the failure to mention slavery and how it is never mentioned. I don’t understand how they were able to never mention it. How the writers could be fighting for rights, and freedom from Britain but still allow slavery. Can you explain or direct me to a better explanation than our textbook has?

- Why is the government so corrupt?

- how can you consider yourself a republican or a democrat? What if you agree with some concepts from each party? Would you just choose the party you relate to the most?

- If I had to say anything was unclear about this class, I would have to say it would be the Judicial Branch. I do understand how it works, I just do not understand all of the parts of the branch. Who it is all made up of and what are their jobs. I understand the supreme court and that their is a judge, but all of the parts that it is made up are still confusing. Such as, what are the other important parts of the branch. I would like more detail of the smaller state judicial branches and how working your way up to the supreme court works. I have a little background that involves appealing, but I do not know how the appeal process works.

- I've been needing help on understanding the things that congress does. what does the senate and the house of reps do??

- What is the supposed benefit of the electoral college? To my limited understanding, it seems to be the first impediment to a true Democracy. Was that its purpose? To prevent mob rule?
What is the main reason for taxing?

- What are the differences between a libertarian and a liberal or are they the same thing?

- How can one identify as a Republican or Democrat? What happens if you agree with one party in some areas, and the other on other areas?

- What is exactly does the Primary elections do for US? As a country? By electing these people what will they be in charge of leading and changing for us. Also, do people in the primary’s help to elect the president in the electoral college?

- How come police or public officials need a search warrant to search somethings like a phone, or a student, but they do not need a search warrant to search other things like trash that you had placed on the street, or your car? I know we have talked about it briefly but I would just like some clarification on the topic.

- The only thing I do have a question on is, the details of how candidates are chosen and the primaries.

- I'm a little confused on what actually happened during the Watergate scandal. I know the basics of what President Nixon did, but don't quite understand the details. Could you please give a deeper explanation?

- How does an electoral college work? I have heard that you can win majority but lose electoral and lose the whole election or win electoral and lose majority but still win the whole election. I don't understand what the point of majority votes are if they don't matter

- How does the public (citizens and or govt officials) necessarily influence political decisions (or just government in general) such as deciding on bills, laws, rights, and etc? sorry if this is such a broad question.

- Is an interest group a kind of institution? I assume so, since institutions are “the organizations, norms, and rules that structure political action,” and an interest group is an organization that does that, but I must’ve overlooked it in my book.

- I was wondering how do other states get around the Full Faith and Credit Clause in cases like some states making marijuana legal but others still have it illegal, or when gay marriage became legal in one state yet other states didn't act accordingly.

- I am still eluded by certain court cases and their significance. I still need to put time in studying them but for some reason i get some of the basic ones mixed up.

- I have found this class to be more difficult than expected. I am mainly confused on the 1000-word essay. How are we supposed to predict the outcome of the November midterm elections and write 1000 words over it? No matter how much research I do, I feel like I cannot write 1000 words on one simple question you asked. I struggled to write 150 for the introduction and I’m stuck on what to continue writing about. Thanks!

- What is the difference between conservatives and liberals? What are their beliefs?

- During a regular trial, impartial citizens of the United States are a part of the jury to come to a conclusion of the case at hand. During an impeachment trial however, who serves on the jury to come to the conclusion on whether or not the individual in the government should be impeached?

- What is a block grant and who gives them out?

- Why do we hold primany elections to determine a winner for the local & insignificant positions? Why couldn't we just hold a general election for these positions? It seems like there is a lot of bother for something so relatively unimportant

- My stupid question for this written assignment is “How does a bill become a law?” I think I may have learned it awhile back, but I don’t fully remember.

- The current status of of millennials revolves around less political participation and my question is what types of methods do media sources use to push their agenda to the younger generation of America and are the methods effective.

- How many seats are there in the House of Representatives?

- What is the difference between de facto and de jure segregation? What exactly is protected speech? How do we identify if something is protected speech? Examples? What is a superPAC? What is gerrymandering? What are the differences between new/cooperative/dual federalism?

- Does the President have the ability to dissolve Congress if he do chooses or is that a violation of the constitution? Also there has always been 435 congressman and each district has to have at least 700,000 people in it. How often do they redraw districts and as the population grows when will they need to change the minimum population per district?

- With all the recent events that have happened, will reducing the output of guns and tightening gun laws actually stop people? Like illegal drugs, people always find a way and people who already have them. So what is congress trying to do and what are the peoples reasoning on their protest?

- My stupid question is “what’s the actual difference between a democrat and a republican?” I know this is the most basic knowledge everyone should have; but I have always been confused on the different ideas and beliefs that would make each party separate from each other. I’m also confused, because I’ve been told that the parties could switch ideas from time to time, so I’m wondering how we know when they switch and if there is a set trait that makes each party different.

- This seems like a simple question... What does Checks and Balances mean? It seems like most of the students in the class I'm in understand this so I thought it was a stupid question.

- How does the process of the President choosing his cabinet work? My dad once mentioned that even though Trump is president, the members of his cabinet could lead to some actual solutions since we essentially have no faith in Trump. However, if Trump selects them, then I feel we can't really have faith they will be of substantial help outside of Trump's idiocy. Thanks.