The president of the Houston Federation of Teachers called it “the worst news we can imagine for our students and families.” The head of the NAACP's Houston chapter called it "a crime against public education." Houston's mayor assigned it a letter grade: F.
But, amid accusations that Texas Republicans were using Wednesday's long-awaited takeover of the Houston Independent School District to siphon local control of public education and push a pro-voucher, pro-charter school agenda, Gov. Greg Abbott insisted the lone motivation behind the move is HISD's 187,000 schoolchildren.
"All that is completely separate from what is happening with HISD," Abbott said of his legislative agenda. Instead, the takeover will make sure Houston schools will “no longer be failing their students,” the governor said.
Sunday, March 19, 2023
From the Houston Chronicle: TEA takes over Houston ISD despite community outrage, academic gains
Saturday, March 18, 2023
From the American Bankers Association: Acts & Regulations - A comprehensive listing of federal acts and banking regulations, with links to full analyses and related news.
A comprehensive list of laws passed by Congress which regulate different aspects of the banking industry.
- Click here for more about the American Bankers Association.
A history of bank failures in the United States
- Banking Strategist: A History of U.S. Bank Failures.
- Economic History Association: US Banking History, Civil War to World War II.
- Reuters: TIMELINE: U.S. financial rescues, failures in last century.
- History of US bank failures: What happened before collapse of SVB, Silvergate and Signature bank.
- Wikipedia: List of banking crises.
- Wikipedia: Panic of 1907.
What is - or was - Silicon Valley Bank?
For our inevitable look at bank regulatory policy.
- Click here for the wiki link.
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was a state-chartered commercial bank headquartered in Santa Clara, California that failed on March 10, 2023, with holdings now managed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). SVB was the 16th-largest bank in the United States and was the largest bank by deposits in Silicon Valley. SVB operated branches in California and Massachusetts. The bank composed the primary business of SVB Financial Group, its publicly traded bank holding company which, with other subsidiaries, operated offices in 13 additional U.S. states and in over a dozen international jurisdictions.
SVB, a financial institution that had become the go-to bank for nearly half of all venture-backed tech startups, failed after a run on its deposits triggered by a series of central bank-endorsed interest rate hikes amid a global inflation surge. The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI), its regulator, seized the bank and placed it into the receivership of the FDIC in the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history. On March 12, 2023, a joint statement by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell, and FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg said all depositors at SVB would be fully protected and have access to all of their money – including both insured and uninsured deposits – starting the following Monday, March 13. That day, the newly-created and FDIC-administered successor, Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, N.A., a bridge bank, began operations and assumed ongoing business.
______
Why did it fail?
- From Economics Observatory: Why did Silicon Valley Bank fail?
- Al Jazeera: Why did Silicon Valley Bank fail and is a financial crisis next?
______
What might the consequences be?
- Al Jazeera: US, UK try to stem fallout from Silicon Valley Bank collapse.
Friday, March 17, 2023
From Wikipedia: 2023 Ohio train derailment
Seems to be a good source of thorough info about the incident.
- Click here for the entry.
What is the Norfolk Southern Railway?
Some background, including about its predecessors.
- Norfolk Southern Railway.
The Norfolk Southern Railway (reporting mark NS) is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway.
- Norfolk Southern Railway (1942–1982).
The Norfolk Southern Railway (reporting mark NS) was the final name of a railroad that ran from Norfolk, Virginia, southwest and west to Charlotte, North Carolina. It was acquired by the Southern Railway in 1974, which merged with the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1982 to form the current Norfolk Southern Railway.
- Western North Carolina Railroad.
Western North-Carolina Railroad Company was incorporated under act of North Carolina on February 15, 1855.[1] Western North Carolina Railroad Company went through several slight changes in name and reorganizations before being sold at foreclosure on August 21, 1894, and conveyed to Southern Railway (U.S.) on August 22, 1894.
The Southern Railway (reporting mark SOU) (also known as Southern Railway Company and now known as the Norfolk Southern Railway) was a class 1 railroad based in the Southern United States between 1894 and 1982, when it merged with the Norfolk & Western to form Norfolk Southern. The railroad was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894.
The South Carolina Rail Road Company was a railroad company that operated in South Carolina from 1843 to 1894, when it was succeeded by the Southern Railway. It was formed in 1844 by the merger of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company (SCC&RR) into the Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad Company. It was built with a track gauge of 5 ft (1,524 mm).
- South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company.
The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company was a railroad in South Carolina that operated independently from 1830 to 1844. One of the first railroads in North America to be chartered and constructed, it provided the first steam-powered, scheduled passenger train service in the United States.Chartered under act of the South Carolina General Assembly of December 19, 1827, the company operated its first 6-mile (9.7 km) line west from Charleston, South Carolina in 1830.
Regarding Railroad Safety Regulations
In light of the recent Norfolk Southern crash, here's info on the history of railroad safety regulations.
- From the American Association of Railroads: Chronology of America’s Freight Railroads.
- 100 Years of Safer Railroads.
- HISTORICAL INDUSTRY ANDSAFETY OVERVIEW.
- Transportation safety in the United States.
Relevant Legislation:
- A BRIEF SUMMARY OF RAILROAD SAFETY LEGISLATION.
- Railroad Safety Appliance Act.
- Independent Safety Board Act of 1974.
- Norman Y. Mineta Research and Special Programs Improvement Act of 2004.
- Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.
- The Railway Safety Act of 2023.
U.S. Code
- 49 USC SUBTITLE V, PART A: SAFETY.
Relevant Executive Agencies:
- Interstate Commerce Commission.
- Department of Transportation.
- National Transportation Safety Board.
- - Norfolk Southern Railway Train Derailment with Subsequent Hazardous Material Release and Fires.- - NTSB Examining Rail Car Component in East Palestine Derailment.
- - NTSB Issues Investigative Update on Ohio Train Derailment.
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
- Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Executive Orders and Agency Rules:
- Executive Order 13771.
- Hazardous Materials: Removal of Electronically Controlled Pneumatic Brake System Requirements for High Hazard Flammable Unit Trains.
- The Trump Administration Rolled Back More Than 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List.
- Obama-era safety rule for high-hazard cargo trains was repealed under Trump.
- Federal Register: Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Interest Groups:
- National League of Cities: Cities Ask Congress to Act on Rail Safety.- Conservative groups oppose safety bill introduced after Ohio derailment.
Thursday, March 16, 2023
From the Pew Research Center: Views of American democratic values and principles
From April 2018:
A look at agreements and disagreements over democracy.
- Click here for it.
Cutting to the chase:
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
The Separated Powers and The Checks and Balances
LII: The Separated Powers.
Wikipedia: Liberty and the separation of powers.
- The Legislative Power.
- - Legislative Institutions
- The Executive Power.
- - Executive Institutions
- The Judicial Power.
- - Judicial Institutions
Wikipedia: Liberty and the separation of powers.
- The Legislative Power.
- - Legislative Institutions
- The Executive Power.
- - Executive Institutions
- The Judicial Power.
- - Judicial Institutions
Monday, March 13, 2023
A Recent Notice: Prohibited Technologies – ACC Student Announcement
That darned TikTok
- Click here for it.
Or just read this:
Prohibited Technologies – ACC Student Announcement
On December 7, 2022, Governor Greg Abbott issued an order for all state agencies (including
Institutions of Higher Education) to ban the video-sharing application TikTok from Collegeowned and issued devices and networks. On February 6, 2023, the Texas Department of Public
Safety and the Texas Department of Information Resources published detailed guidelines to aid
in compliance with the directive. Alvin Community College is taking preliminary steps for
compliance.
ACC has implemented technical controls that block the use of the TikTok app and website on all
ACC-controlled networks. This requires no action on your part. Be aware that any attempt to
access TikTok or other items listed in the guidelines as ‘prohibited technologies’ from an ACCcontrolled device or network will be blocked.
ACC will continue to monitor guidance provided by the Governor’s office, the Texas
Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Information Resources and make
additional changes as necessary.
OTHER INFORMATION
• ACC strongly recognizes and respects the rights of its students, employees, and member
of the community to manage their own affairs. To ensure the safety and security of its
network and its constituents, the College will comply with best practice network security
frameworks and regulatory or legal requirements.
• ACC will closely examine the impacts of this order, and how it affects our interconnected
culture and reliance on mobile devices, while complying with the objectives.
• Students may be subject to certain network restrictions while connected to ACC’s
network. As permitted by the state, ACC has proposed an exception to prevent any
potential impacts on student access to ACC email, student records, Blackboard, or other
web-based instructional content.
Section 16: Public Policy Arenas, Part 2
2305: Foreign Policy
2306: Public Policy in Texas
- Education Policy in Texas.
- Health and Human Services Policy in Texas.
- Business and Economic Development Policy in Texas.
- Criminal Justice and Public Safety Policy in Texas.
- Natural Resources Policy in Texas.
- Regulatory Policy in Texas.
2305: Chapter 17: Foreign Policy
- foreign policy
- security
- security threats
- non-state actors
- isolationism
- the Cold War
- containment
- deterrence
- preventive war
- appeasement
- nation-state
- preemption
- Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
- America First
- Economic Prosperity
- most favored nation status
- World Trade Organization
- North American Free Trade Association
- United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement
- free trade
- protectionism
- international humanitarian policies
- environmental policy
- human rights policy
- peacekeeping
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
- Actors
- president and advisors
- commander in chief
- inherent power
- State, Defense, and Treasury Departments
- Joint Chiefs of Staff
- National Security Council
- The Intelligence Community
- Enumerated Powers
- treaty making
- executive agreement
- congressional committees
- diplomacy
- foreign service
- United Nations
- International Monetary Fund
- Economic Aid
- Economic Sanctions
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- military force
- International Court of Justice
2306: Public Policy in Texas
- low-tax, low-service
- agenda setting
- policy creation
- policy adoption
- policy implementation
- policy evaluation and assessment
- redistributive policies
- health care
- poverty
- Medicare
- Medicaid
- Children's Health Insurance Program
- Affordable Care Act
- Social Security
- Temporary Assistance to Needy Families
- means tested programs
- unemployment benefits
- workers compensation
- immigration
- border security
- deportation
- education
- k-12 funding
- permanent school fund
- foundation school fund
- available school fund
- EISD v. Kirby
- vouchers
- school reform
- standardized tests
- education accountability
- diversity
- special education
- bullying
- higher education
- permanent university fund
- tuition
- community colleges
- Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
- affirmative action
- transportation
- energy
- the environment
- water
- Texas Water Development Board
- right of capture
- water pollution
- air pollution
- energy sources
__________
Areas of Public Policy
2305
- Delegated
- - War and Defense
- - Commerce
- - - Transportation
- - - Communication
- Implied
- - Banking
- - Health, Education, and Welfare
- - Labor
2306
- Reserved
How are these best understood?
The States
- Constitutional Articles
- Areas of Spending in the Fiscal Size-Up
__________
Chapter Fourteen: Lone Star Politics - Social Policy: Education, Health, and Immigration
Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
Education Reform Act
entitlement programs
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
Medicaid
Medicare
Permanent University Fund (PUF)
redistributive programs
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB)
Friday, March 10, 2023
Links 3/10/23
- Gov. Abbott: Proposed Chapter 313 replacement should not include incentives for renewable energy.
- Lone Star College System board votes to raise tuition starting fall 2023.
- ARP ESSER Grant Funds:How will Alvin ISD Use the Funds?
- ACC Service Area.
- After 50 years, Texas’ public-information laws need updates. Here are important fixes.
https://www.expressnews.com/opinion/commentary/article/commentary-abbott-s-policy-against-dei-ignores-17831005.php
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2023/03/09/senate-unveils-bills-power-grid-bills-targeting-renewable-energy/
https://wacotrib.com/opinion/columnists/russell-boening-protecting-farming-ranching-in-our-texas-constitution/article_d0151232-b9e6-11ed-b1fb-e74d5bb158c8.html
https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&Bill=HJR126
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/housing/article/affordable-housing-tax-break-deals-new-complexes-17813665.php#:~:text=One%20month%20after%20Mayor%20Sylvester,with%20eight%20more%20housing%20complexes.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/punk
Thursday, March 9, 2023
HB 15: Relating to the creation of the Mental Health and Brain Research Institute of Texas
The second time this has been introduce. Its like CPRIT, but for the brain.
- Click here for it.
- Neuroscience research centers in the United States.
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Links 3/8/23
Texas lawmakers propose historic investments to broadband and water infrastructure — but voters will have the last word.
- - HB 9.
- - HB 10.
- - - Texas Constitution Article 3, Section 49 (State Debts).
- - - Texas Constitution Article 3, Section 49 (State Debts) original language.
__________
After a two-year pause, feds give Texas the go-ahead to resume a major Houston highway expansion.
Women denied abortions sue Texas to clarify exceptions to the laws.
Texas Republicans have filed dozens of bills affecting LGBTQ people. Here’s what they’d do.
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
The first political action committee
- The CIO-PAC.
The first-ever "political action committee" in the United States of America was the Congress of Industrial Organizations – Political Action Committee or CIO-PAC (1943–1955). What distinguished the CIO-PAC from previous political groups (including the AFL's political operations) was its "open, public operation, soliciting support from non-CIO unionists and from the progressive public. ... Moreover, CIO political operatives would actively participate in intraparty platform, policy, and candidate selection processes, pressing the broad agenda of the industrial union movement."
Oversight hearings: Senate Banking Committee and the Federal Reserve.
https://www.banking.senate.gov/
https://www.banking.senate.gov/hearings/02/28/2023/the-semiannual-monetary-policy-report-to-the-congress
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Powell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Committee_on_Banking,_Housing,_and_Urban_Affairs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monetary_policy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherrod_Brown
Buckey v. Valeo etc....
Wikipedia: Political Campaign.
Open Secrets: Money-in-Politics Timeline.
Wikipedia: Campaign finance reform in the United States.
Wikipedia: Watergate scandal.
New York Times: An Explanation: How Money That Financed Watergate Was Raised and Distributed.
Constitutional Rights Foundation: The Watergate Scandal.
Wikipedia: Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.
Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974.
- Congress.gov: H.R.16090 - Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments.
- The Campaign Finance Institute.
The Federal Election Commission.
- Federal Register.
- Homepage.
- Wikipedia.
Original Provisions of the FECA
- Wikipedia.
Current Contribution Limits.
- Federal Election Commission.
Buckley v Valeo
- Federal Election Commission.
- Oyez.
- Wikipedia.
Plaintiffs:
- James L. Buckley.
- a candidate for the Presidency of the United States
- a United States Senator who is a candidate for reelection
- a potential contributor
- the Committee for a Constitutional Presidency -- McCarthy '76
- the Conservative Party of the State of New York
- the Mississippi Republican Party
- the Libertarian Party
- the New York Civil Liberties Union, Inc.
- the American Conservative Union
- the Conservative Victory Fund
- and Human Events, Inc.
Defendants:
- Secretary of the Senate Francis Valeo in his capacity as a member of the FEC.
- the Secretary of the United States Senate
- the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives
- the Federal Election Commission
- the Attorney General of the United States
- the Comptroller General of the United States.
Wikipedia: Per Curiam Opinion.
Monday, March 6, 2023
From Texas Tribune: Texas GOP censures U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales over party-splitting votes in Congress
Parties can be complicated things.
The state party is attempting to punish a member of the United States House of Representatives.
- Click here for the article.
The Republican Party of Texas voted Saturday to censure U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, over his recent votes that split with the party.
The State Republican Executive Committee passed the censure resolution 57-5, with one member abstaining. It needed a three-fifths majority to pass.
The move allows the party, which is otherwise required to remain neutral in intraparty contests, to set aside that rule for Gonzales’ next primary.
The last — and only — time the state party censured one of its own like this was in 2018, when the offender was then-state House Speaker Joe Straus. He was also a moderate from San Antonio.
Gonzales did not appear at the SREC meeting but addressed the issue after an unrelated news conference Thursday in San Antonio. He specifically defended his vote for the bipartisan gun law that passed last year after the Uvalde school shooting in his district. He said that if the vote were held again today, “I would vote twice on it if I could.”
“The reality is I’ve taken almost 1,400 votes, and the bulk of those have been with the Republican Party,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales’ campaign responded to the censure in a statement that dinged the state party.
Sunday, March 5, 2023
From NPR: How Putin Conquered Russia's Oligarchy
A look at power in modern Russia, from oligarchy to autocracy.
- Click here for the article.
Putin came to power thanks in no small part to the original class of oligarchs, who got ostentatiously rich through crooked privatization deals during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin. These oligarchs created and bankrolled what became Putin's political party, Unity, the predecessor to what is now called United Russia. They engineered President Boris Yeltsin's stunning comeback victory in the 1996 presidential elections. Without this victory, Yeltsin could have never appointed Putin as his prime minister, a position that proved to be Putin's launching pad for his presidential bid. The oligarchs helped fuel Putin's meteoric rise. Two of them, Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky, deployed their television stations and newspapers to turn Putin from an unknown figure into a household name.
But Putin was a shrewder politician than they initially realized. When Putin's 2000 presidential election campaign heated up, he began paying lip service to Russia's hatred of the oligarchs and the corrupt deals that enriched them. Shortly before election day, Putin was asked by a radio station how he felt about the oligarchs. If by oligarchs, he said, one meant those who "help fusion of power and capital — there will be no oligarchs of this kind as a class."
But, once in power, Putin didn't actually eliminate the oligarchy. He only targeted individual oligarchs who threatened his power. He first aimed at Vladimir Gusinsky, the rare oligarch who built most of his wealth from scratch as opposed to merely taking over extractive industries that once belonged to the government. Back in the mid-1980s, Gusinsky was a cab driver with broken dreams of directing plays in Moscow's theater scene. When the Soviet Union began allowing entrepreneurship in the late 1980s, Gusinsky made a small fortune making and selling copper bracelets, which were apparently a big hit with Russian consumers. In the early 1990s, he flipped buildings in Moscow's burgeoning real estate market and started a bank. By 1993, he had enough money to start a newspaper and Russia's first private television station, NTV.
Tolerated under Yeltsin, NTV ran programs — including a satirical puppet show — critical of the Kremlin. When NTV newscasters — and puppets — began criticizing and making fun of the newly elected president, Putin slammed down his iron fist. In 2000, armed agents in camouflage and ski masks raided NTV's offices. The government alleged Gusinsky stole $10 million in a privatization deal. Gusinsky was jailed and then fled overseas. A state-controlled energy company, Gazprom, ended up buying NTV in a hostile takeover. Rest assured, Putin doesn't have to worry about puppets making fun of him anymore.
From Open Secrets: “Midterm spending spree”: Cost of 2022 federal elections tops $8.9 billion, a new midterm record
The 2022 federal election cost more than $8.9 billion, blowing past the inflation-adjusted $7.1 billion spent on the 2018 midterm elections, a new OpenSecrets analysis of year-end disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission found.
For all the billions of dollars spent, Democrats picked up one U.S. Senate seat, clinging to the party’s narrow majority in the chamber — until Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced she would switch from Democrat to independent in December, effectively shrinking the Democrat’s legislative breathing room. Republicans narrowly regained a 5-member majority in the U.S. House, which has already posed a political headache for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
“The ever-escalating spending race between political parties means the price of admission to Congress keeps climbing,” said OpenSecrets Executive Director Sheila Krumholz. “But all of that money had hardly left American voters more or better informed.
“This midterm spending spree was preceded by years of lax campaign finance regulations and oversight following the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United, and I anticipate more federal election spending records will be smashed in 2024,” Krumholz said.
For comparison: Report: Auto insurers spent $10B on advertising in 2021.
Using the Ad Fontes media chart to find credible sources
Levels
- Fact Reporting
- Analysis
- Opinion
- Propaganda
- Inaccuracy
A couple useful terms: Cabal and Purge
- Cabal.
From Fed 10: In the first place, it is to be remarked that, however small the republic may be, the representatives must be raised to a certain number, in order to guard against the cabals of a few; and that, however large it may be, they must be limited to a certain number, in order to guard against the confusion of a multitude.
From Merriam Webster:
the contrived schemes of a group of persons secretly united in a plot (as to overturn a government)
From Wikipedia:
A cabal is a group of people who are united in some close design, usually to promote their private views or interests in an ideology, a state, or another community, often by intrigue and usually unbeknownst to those who are outside their group. The use of this term usually carries negative connotations of political purpose, conspiracy and secrecy. It can also refer to a secret plot or a clique, or it may be used as a verb (to form a cabal or secretly conspire).
_________
- Purge.
remove (a group of people considered undesirable) from an organization or place in an abrupt or violent way.
"he purged all but 26 of the central committee members"
- Wikipedia:
In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an effort is labeled as purging itself. Purges can be either nonviolent or violent, with the former often resolved by the simple removal of those who have been purged from office, and the latter often resolved by the imprisonment, exile, or murder of those who have been purged.
Active Learning Assignment #8
Spring 2024
This is for both GOVT 2305 and 2306
I want you to read up on party polarization.
- Click here for past blog posts on the subject.
Using this as a background, please comment on what you believe are the factors driving party polarization on the national and state level.
- Submit your answer through Blackboard.
- It is due for full credit on midnight the on the assigned date.
- It will be subject to a penalty if turned in late.
- Is can be turned in for partial credit until the end of the semester.
- The grade is commensurate to the quality of the work.
- There is a 150 word minimum requirement.
- You may write as much as you wish.
________
Fall 2023:
How would you describe the current party era? Why?
For 2305, please look at the national parties.
For 2306, please look at the state parties.
For reading material:
- Pew Research Center: In a Politically Polarized Era, Sharp Divides in Both Partisan Coalitions.
- Pew Research Center: Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology.
- The Collector: How The 2 Major American Political Parties Evolved.
Feel free to hunt around for more.
As always:
- Submit your answer through Blackboard.
- It is due for full credit on midnight the on the assigned date.
- It will be subject to a penalty if turned in late.
- Is can be turned in for partial credit until the end of the semester.
- The grade is commensurate to the quality of the work.
- There is a 150 word minimum requirement.
- You may write as much as you wish.
This is for both GOVT 2305 and 2306
I want you to read up on party polarization.
- Click here for past blog posts on the subject.
Using this as a background, please comment on what you believe are the factors driving party polarization on the national and state level.
- Submit your answer through Blackboard.
- It is due for full credit on midnight the on the assigned date.
- It will be subject to a penalty if turned in late.
- Is can be turned in for partial credit until the end of the semester.
- The grade is commensurate to the quality of the work.
- There is a 150 word minimum requirement.
- You may write as much as you wish.
________
Fall 2023:
How would you describe the current party era? Why?
For 2305, please look at the national parties.
For 2306, please look at the state parties.
For reading material:
- Pew Research Center: In a Politically Polarized Era, Sharp Divides in Both Partisan Coalitions.
- Pew Research Center: Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology.
- The Collector: How The 2 Major American Political Parties Evolved.
- Wikipedia: Sixth Party System.
Feel free to hunt around for more.
As always:
- Submit your answer through Blackboard.
- It is due for full credit on midnight the on the assigned date.
- It will be subject to a penalty if turned in late.
- Is can be turned in for partial credit until the end of the semester.
- The grade is commensurate to the quality of the work.
- There is a 150 word minimum requirement.
- You may write as much as you wish.
From Soren Kierkegaard
Maybe fits with our look at Fed 10, maybe not. You tell me.
"The truth is always in the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because as a rule the minority is made up of those who actually have an opinion, while the strength of the majority is illusory, formed of that crowd which has no opinion — and which therefore the next moment (when it becomes clear that the minority is the stronger) adopts the latter's opinion, which now is in the majority, i. e. becomes rubbish by having the whole retinue and numerousness on its side, while the truth is again in a new minority.“
- Source.
- For more.
"The truth is always in the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because as a rule the minority is made up of those who actually have an opinion, while the strength of the majority is illusory, formed of that crowd which has no opinion — and which therefore the next moment (when it becomes clear that the minority is the stronger) adopts the latter's opinion, which now is in the majority, i. e. becomes rubbish by having the whole retinue and numerousness on its side, while the truth is again in a new minority.“
- Source.
- For more.
Friday, March 3, 2023
From Ballotpedia: Local ballot measures pertaining to electoral systems.
Voters are being asked to weigh in on ranked-choice voting.
- Click here for it.
What is ranked-choice voting?
- Wikipedia.
Thursday, March 2, 2023
Links - 3/2/23
https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the-rise-of-political-violence-in-the-united-states/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/28/climate/esg-climate-backlash.html
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-joint-resolution/30/all-actions-without-amendments
https://www.cisa.gov/state-and-local-cybersecurity-grant-program
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_nuclear_disaster
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_and_tsunami
https://www.grants.gov/learn-grants/grant-making-agencies/department-of-homeland-security.html
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2022/09/16/biden-harris-administration-announces-1-billion-funding-first-ever-state-and-local
https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=87R&Bill=HB3172
https://www.txbiz.org/_files/ugd/033e3e_fd8b6a924a5d4c39b80ca564dbd50f88.pdf
https://beeralliance.com/
https://www.houstontx.gov/brownfields/
From Brookings: Based on Biden’s two years of judicial appointments, Trump’s four-year record seems secure
- Click here for it.
From Wikipedia: List of federal judges appointed by Joe Biden.
__________
From Senate.gov.
PN77: Margaret R. Guzman, of Massachusetts, to be United States District Judge for the District of Massachusetts
-- Considered by Senate.
-- Confirmed by the Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 49 - 48. Record Vote Number: 32
PN170: Colleen R. Lawless, of Illinois, to be United States District Judge for the Central District of Illinois
-- Cloture invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 53 - 43. Record Vote Number: 33
-- Considered by Senate.
-- By unanimous consent agreement, debate and vote 3/2/2023.
PN171: Jonathan James Canada Grey, of Michigan, to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan
-- Cloture invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 52 - 44. Record Vote Number: 34
-- Considered by Senate.
-- By unanimous consent agreement, vote 3/2/2023.
PN175: James Edward Simmons, Jr., of California, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of California
-- Cloture invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 51 - 45. Record Vote Number: 36
-- Considered by Senate.
-- By unanimous consent agreement, vote to be determined.
Political Polarization
A few sources:
- See Congress polarize over the past 60 years, in one beautiful chart.
- The Growing Partisan Divide in Views of Higher Education.
- Visualizing Political Polarization in U.S. Cities.
- American politics has reached peak polarization.
- The Polarization of the Congressional Parties.
Washington's Farewell Address 1796
For our look at the development of political parties.
- Wikipedia: George Washington's Farewell Address.
- Washington’s Farewell Address – A Contemporary Synopsis.
- Full text from Avalon.
Friends and Citizens:
I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.
The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which your suffrages have twice called me have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea.
I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty or propriety, and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that, in the present circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove my determination to retire.
The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed towards the organization and administration of the government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.
In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations in which not unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.
Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.
Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.
But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole.
The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the productions of the latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and, while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and water, will more and more find a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and, what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.
While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same governments, which their own rival ships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.
These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands.
In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our Western country have lately had a useful lesson on this head; they have seen, in the negotiation by the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event, throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the General Government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi; they have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that with Great Britain, and that with Spain, which secure to them everything they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the Union by which they were procured ? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren and connect them with aliens?
To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliance, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.
All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.
However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?
Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it, avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertion in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that towards the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate.
Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it - It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue ? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?
In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations, has been the victim.
So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils. Such an attachment of a small or weak towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government. the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing (with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them) conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.
How far in the discharge of my official duties I have been guided by the principles which have been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them.
In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my proclamation of the twenty-second of April, I793, is the index of my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that of your representatives in both houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.
After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance, and firmness.
The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all.
The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without anything more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations.
The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.
Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.
Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Catching up with the Texas Legislature
These are all from the Texas Tribune
- Wendy Davis to lead Planned Parenthood’s political advocacy arm.
- Business and legislative leaders push to replace expired tax break with a new one.
- School districts face millions in extra costs as Texas program that backs bond debt hits its limit.
- Two GOP legislators in Harris County want to let the state replace local elections administrators.
- Mayor Sylvester Turner expects the state will soon take over Houston ISD.
- Texas lawmakers take first step to restoring felony penalty for illegal voting.
The Moores of Richmond
Another example of the ease by which a small group can dominate local governance.
Maybe could be a television series?
- Richmond, Texas.
- John M. Moore.
- John M. and Lottie D. Moore House.
- Lottie D. Moore (?)
- Hilmar Moore.
- Evalyn W. Moore.
- After 71 years, the Moore dynasty in Richmond ends as a new mayor is sworn in.
- Jaybird–Woodpecker War.
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
The Supreme Court holds oral arguments in two cases challenging Biden's student loan forgiveness plan.
Biden v. Nebraska.
- Oyez.
- Scotusblog.
- Wikipedia.
- Oyez.
- Scotusblog.
- Wikipedia.
Is this an example of local majority tyranny?
I’m tempted to say that this is what Madison was referring to in Federalist 10.
In Odessa, as in many other Texas cities, elections for municipal positions such as mayor and city council member are nonpartisan; candidates do not run as Republicans or Democrats. In recent years, though, Odessa politics have become increasingly divisive and ideological, mirroring national trends. Joven and his allies say they are simply representing the values of their conservative constituents. Ector County is overwhelmingly red; Donald Trump won about 73 percent of its 44,591 votes cast in the 2020 presidential election. “We were elected, and the citizens wanted change,” said council member Swanner. Council member Mark Matta, an account manager at an oil and gas supply company who was elected in 2020, also voted to fire Brooks and Marrero. “We weren’t getting anywhere with [Marrero], so we just had to make the decision that we thought was best for the city of Odessa,” he told me. Matta declined to go into greater detail, citing unspecified “pending litigation.”
Several current and former Odessa City Council members told me that while the city is certainly conservative, Joven’s faction, which aligns itself with the MAGA wing of the Republican Party, has introduced a new atmosphere of extreme partisanship, distracting the council from its traditional emphasis on infrastructure and business development. At its first meeting, in November, the newly reconstituted city council voted to declare Odessa a sanctuary city for the unborn, joining more than forty other Texas cities that have outlawed abortion. Odessa’s ordinance is even more restrictive than the state’s abortion ban, providing exceptions only for ectopic pregnancies.
Thompson was alone in voting against the ordinance, arguing that reproductive rights were beyond the scope of the city council. “Why do we need to get involved?” he asked me. “Let’s go build a sports complex. Let’s pave roads.” Since November, though, those typical functions of city government seem to have taken a back seat to Team Joven’s ideological agenda. “It’s very difficult to entice new businesses to come into a city where the local government is so nonfunctional,” said Gene Collins, who served from 2016 to 2020 on the board of the Odessa Development Corporation, which provides financial incentives to spur economic activity. “City employees that we’ve had for a long time have resigned. Others are unsure of their future. Nothing is really getting done in the city.”
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