Assignment 2: Unit Four-State Hearing

Divided government occurs when one political party controls the presidency and another controls one or both houses of Congress. The struggle between parties can create significant issues for the government, including the appointment of judges and high officials and the creation of effective problem-solving legislation.

The election of 1796, John Adams versus Thomas Jefferson. The former won by only 3 single electoral college votes. In a highly competitive, controversial race filled with fake smiles and harsh glares, those votes made all the difference in the world to these two men and their running mates. Because George Washington refused a second term, political parties took root when election time came around. No one knew that this election in the early stages of Americas development would define the future of the United States of America. The Two-Party system soon controlled the decisions of all Americans. This is all this country has ever known, and if it were to every drastically change, our country would spin into ultimate turmoil. This system works

A filibuster is a major power anyone in the senate holds. According to Sarah Binder author of “The History of Filibuster” (Binder, 2010), a filibuster was not intended by the framers when they were making the Constitution. Both the House of Representative and the Senate had the same rules for debating in 1789. Both had the power to cut off and end the debate when there was a simple majority. But Sarah said “In 1805, Vice President Aaron Burr was presiding over the Senate (freshly indicted for the murder of Alexander Hamilton), and he offered this advice. He said something like this. You are a great deliberative body. But a truly great Senate would have a cleaner rule book. Yours is a mess. You have lots of rules that do the same thing. And he singles out the previous question motion. (Binder, 2010)” Therefore the Senate did not hesitate and took the chance to get rid of the

Separation of Powers has proven to accentuate the Constitution’s intentions and maintain the rights of the people. Fabricated by Baron de Montesquieu, this structure is woven into the government to entail specific responsibilities upon each branch. This system thoroughly defines the boundaries for each unit of government to ensure tyranny remains dormant and that people are inevitably sovereign. Separation of Powers is incessantly purposeful in present day for a myriad amount of reasons. Overall, it supports people’s natural rights regarding the Constitution and terminates tyranny.

Today, the filibuster is a common scene in the U.S. Senate. It has been in practice for over 150 years, defending the minority against the majority vote. Measures to limit filibusters are implemented in Congress currently, including Woodrow Wilson’s

Although some believe filibusters in the Senate can be a manipulative interpretation of the constitution, and a waste of time, they are in fact necessary to American democracy to protect the interests of American people and to open the discussion for negotiation on legislation.

Interpretation of the Constitution’s Vesting Clause has caused the executive's office to greatly expand or contract throughout the course of American history. Every president perceives the Constitution differently, causing contested changes to the office in the pursuit of their overarching goal of national security .

The terrorist attacks on our country that occurred on September 11, 2001 were, without a doubt, the most horrific and deadly in our history. In the aftermath of these attacks, the United States Congress moved quickly to pass legislation that untied the hands of law enforcement in an effort to make investigating terrorist organizations easier. On October 26, 2001, a mere 45 days after the 9/11 tragedy, Congress passed the USAPATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act. The overall purpose of the USA PATRIOT Act was: “To deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes

911 dramatically impacted societies broadly and law enforcement pointedly. According to the National Commission on Terrorists upon the United States (2004), it was clear after the September 11 terrorist attacks that intelligence sharing among all levels of law enforcement and the intelligence community was bankrupt (Carter & Carter, 2009). After the fact, there was a considerable investment of resources in many different government sectors for preparedness, response, and recovery from terrorist attacks. Shortly after the attack, President Bush signs the USA Patriot Act on October 2, 2001. It is intended, in Bush’s words, to "enhance the penalties that will fall on terrorists or anyone who helps them." Although the act passed by wide margins in both houses, it has been criticized for weakening civil liberties.

Red Scare panic and hysteria began in 1919-1920’s after WWI. Thanks to the Red Scare, the American public became paranoid and suspicious of everyone from Communist Russian. In some cases, neighbors would report neighbors as being Communist spies just because they did not like their neighbor. The modern day terrorism The anti-Muslim panic and hysteria arose after terrorists came to the United States as normal immigrants and used the American education system to train themselves to be aircraft pilots and got support money from those already in the United Sates began with the attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. Both are the reactions of the American public to acts of war. The Patriot Act was a legislation that passed that allowed

fundamental principle stated by the bill of rights. The Bill of rights were put into place to protect

Wilson said to some degree, The Senate has no principles by which level headed discussion can be constrained or conveyed to an end, no guidelines by which lazy schemes of any sort can be averted. Given this sediment in the precise following day, it was Senator Thomas Staples Martin who embraced a guideline called cloture. According to the US Senate Glossary the word senate is describe as; “The only procedure by which the Senate can vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other matter, and thereby overcome a filibuster” (senate). According to Time Magazine, in a section regarding the health care reform bill in 2009, Senates discuss their only solution to an 829 billion dollar health care reform bill is filibuster. It states “Republicans have one major weapon left: the filibuster,” says author Kristi Oloffson. It then states, ”If the bill remains what it is now, I will not be able to support a cloture motion before final passage," said Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent. "Therefore I will try to stop the passage of the bill. (Time)” The making of the cloture guideline was not an announcement of affection for supermajority rules to the Senate, but rather it was the result of tough managing of an unsupportive

The act also increased security measures and provide safety to citizens. () Such as at the airport when the TSA picked up and you can not board a plan with a bottle of liquid or any bottle bigger than the travel size. I had to throw out a lot of shampoo bottles because I forgot about this, but it makes me feel safe that they catch it everytime. Having served in the military I have seen first hand how many terrorist they have caught by simply pretending to be one of Al-Qaeda or ISIS leaders so people with sensative military information would tell these people information believing they would gain money, power, or

Nothing is this world is perfect. Our government that has survived over two hundred years and multiple wars but, it is far from perfect. It is full of flaws. Barack Obama makes these flaws apparent in his book, The Audacity of Hope. He states that the constitution is “a living document and must be read in the context of an ever-changing world.” (Obama, 90) Humans beings wrote the constitution and human beings interpret the constitution. The Founding Fathers had many different perspectives on how a government should be such as the “intentions of Jefferson were never those of Hamilton, and those of Hamilton differed greatly from those of Adams.” (Obama,91) The same dilemma is current to this day as republicans and democrat don’t share the same intentions. Proof of this is found in the use of filibuster and it’s use by both parties.

A representative democracy is often characterized by the phrase, majority rule with minority rights. Throughout the history of this country the U.S. Constitution and by extension the U.S. government has been unsuccessful at keeping the majority from abusing the rights of the minority in many cases; one of the most widespread examples is the abuse of the rights African Americans, another more recent example being the abuse of rights of gay Americans. But these are not the only times the Constitution has failed at protecting citizens’ rights, the trials faced by Japanese American citizens during World War II are prime evidence for the abuse of minority rights.