For my Mini 2 GOVT 2305 students: Here's the subject of the critical essay for this semester.
I already asked you to review a 1964 essay titled The Paranoid Style in American Politics.
Now I want you to apply it to a question raised by some current political commentators about the current political environment. Are we now in a political era dominated by this "paranoid style?" Is this a reasonable criticism to make about the positions and methods made by recent political participants? Might there be an underlying rationality implicit in the methods we have seen used by these participants?
I want you to argue for and against this position and weigh in on whether you agree what paranoid politics are dominant. The I want you to investigate whether the American constitutional system - republicanism, separated powers, federalism, individual liberty. etc. . . - is structured in such a way as to compensate for the paranoid style.
Is it a threat to the Republic?