American Politics and Electoral College - Essay Example

Order 152092 Topic: American Politics Introduction: This paper seeks to describe and understand American politics by attempting to answer the following questions: (1) What were pivotal US Presidencies or parties or elections since WWII. What were the prominent issues, who was involved, etc., in the following years 1964, 1968, 1980 and 2000? (2) How does America’s religiosity affect its politics – elections etc? Does it make it more salient? (3) What is the US Electoral College, how does it work. What are its strengths & weaknesses. (4) Identify all three branches of Government focusing on separation of powers, what is it?, what is system of checks & balances, how does this work? Questions and Answer 1. What were pivotal US Presidencies or parties or elections since WWII? What were the prominent issues, who was involved, etc., in 1964, 1968, 1980, and 2000? The US pivotal elections since WW II include that of 1964 election, 1968 election crises, the 1980 election and the 1992 elections. Each is explained below with discussion on personalities involved. a. Election of 1964 In the election of 1964, Lyndon Johnson positioned himself against his GOP opponent, Barry Goldwater. Johnson campaign ran a commercial entitled the "Daisy Girl" ad, which featured a little girl picking petals from a daisy in a field, counting the petals, which then signal into a launch countdown and a nuclear explosion in response to Goldwaters advocacy of using tactical nuclear weapons to fight communism in Asia. Johnson defeated Goldwater in the general election, winning 64.9% of the popular vote, and this was noted to be the largest percentage differential since the 1824 election. (Wikipedia, 2007a) (Paraphrasing made). In addition to nuclear weapon issue to address communism, anther critical issue in the election was that on civil rights. Thus despite Johnson’s winning the election, loss of support in Southern states was evident and signified a reversal in electoral fortunes for Democrats who had depended on the "Solid South" as an electoral base. The issue of civil rights divided conservative southern whites from the rest of the party, the political coalition of labour unions, minorities, liberals, and southern whites (the New Deal Coalition. Lyndon Johnson appeared to have taken advantage the issue with the 1963 assassination of J.K. Kennedy, who was has supported Civil Rights Act of 1964. (Wikipedia, 2007a) (Paraphrasing made). Hence the 1965 Voting Rights Act had an immediate impact on federal, state and local elections, so that with its passage on August 6, 1965, one quarter of a million new black voters had been registered, one third by federal examiners and within four years, voter registration in the South had more than doubled. Hence its effect in voter turnout was manifested at 74% in 1965 resulting a number of black leaders elected and in 1969, where Tennessee had a 92.1% voter turnout, Arkansas 77.9% and Texas 77.3%. (Wikipedia, 2007a) (Paraphrasing made). b. The Crises of 1968 and the Election of Richard Nixon Another pivotal election in US history is the Crises of 1968 and the Election of Richard Nixon. The crises have something to do with the divided opposition against Nixon. With President Lyndon Johnson beginning his re-election campaign, 1968, a member of his own Democratic party, Eugene McCarthy, ran against him for the nomination on an antiwar platform. Although McCarthy did not win the first primary election in New Hampshire, he did surprisingly well against an incumbent. This event resulted to a blow Johnson campaign, and taken together with other factors, caused the President to make an astonishing announcement about his not joining the race. (Wikipedia, 2007a) (Paraphrasing made). Robert Kennedy took advantage of the chance by joining in and who also ran for the nomination (Rose, G. 2005) on an antiwar platform but was latter assassinated. With Johnson out of the race, his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, then ran for the nomination, promising to continue to support the South Vietnamese government. With Humphrey winning the nomination of his party, and he ran against Republican Richard Nixon in the general election. Meanwhile, Nixon had appealed to what he claimed was the "silent majority" of moderate Americans who disliked the "hippie" counterculture and had promised "peace with honour" by his "secret plan" to end the Vietnam War. The election of 1968 made Nixon to win the presidency, against the divided opposition. (Wikipedia, 2007a) (Paraphrasing made). c. The elections of 1980 The sitting president in 1980 was President Carter, whose prospects for re-election in the U.S. presidential election of 1980 were strengthened when he easily beat back a primary challenge by liberal icon Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. (Wikipedia, 2007b) (Paraphrasing made). The pivotal issue in 1980 election is economic stagflation and perceived American weakness against the USSR abroad. The stagflation may be seen to have a direct relation on Vietnam War which has cause a drain on great US resources. Using the issue, Ronald Reagan, former governor of California, who won the Republican nomination in 1980 by winning most of the primaries? He picked his chief primary rival, George H. W. Bush, as the vice-presidential nominee. During Reagans campaign, he relied on Jeane Kirkpatrick as his foreign policy adviser to identify Carters weaknesses on foreign policy. The public, particularly the middle class in the Sun Belt region, agreed with Reagans proposals regarding the economy, and they voted for him in 1980 (Wikipedia, 2007b) (Paraphrasing made). d. The 1992 elections and events from 1988 to Present The 1992 elections was one of the elections where is a large number of voters who went out to vote. It was change in the size of the voting electorate between 1988 and 1992 with nearly thirteen million more people casting their votes in 1992. It was landmark since it was the first time in American history that more than 100 million people voted for president (Schantz, H.L.,1996) (Paraphrasing made). Before 1992, Ronald Reagan served for two terms or a total of eight years from his election in 1980. He was succeeded by George H. W. Bush in 1988. It was Bill Clinton who got elected in 1992 and he latter served up to 2000. George Walker Bush, the son of the former President Bush who got elected in 1988, succeeded Clinton after the former’ election in 2000. The younger Bush got re-elected in 2004 and he presently serves as president until this time. The issue that could be associated with George W. Bush is the involvement of the US in the Persian Gulf War of 1991 (Menos, D.,1992) where the American helped Kuwait people to have their lands back after Iraq led by Saddam Hussein annexed Kuwait as one of its province. Another pivotal event is the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, thereby bringing the Cold War and a new era of US history. With the end of cold war (Summy and Salad, 1995), it would seem the US needed a new leader as the new battle ground is shifting to the economy. Nothing could be more timely then than coming in the arena of Bill Clinton in the presidential race of 1992. Clinton won the elections. His stay in the White House then could be associated with globalization (Haass R, 1997) and the "new economy". Wikipedia (2007c) said, “ Clintons terms in office will be remembered for the nations domestic focus during this period. The years 1994-2000 witnessed the emergence of what many commentators called a technology-driven "new economy," and relatively high increases in real output, low inflation rates, and a drop in unemployment to below five percent. The Internet and related technologies made their first broad penetrations into the economy, prompting a Wall Street technology-driven bubble, which Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan described in 1996 as "irrational exuberance" After Soviet Union’ dissolution in 1991, the United States became the worlds dominant military power and Japan, sometimes seen as the largest economic rival to the U.S., was caught in a period of stagnation. China started to come out as the U.S.s foremost trading competitor in many areas. Conflicts such as those in Haiti and the Balkans were deemed local ones and President Clinton just sent in U.S. troops as peacekeepers, which many asking whether policing the rest of the world was a proper U.S. role at that time. Islamic fundamentalists threat of assaults against the U.S. for its ongoing military presence in the Middle East, were realities then and they even managed to have the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, in addition to various deadly attacks on U.S. interests abroad. (Wikipedia, 2007c (Paraphrasing made). This was latter followed a more devastating attack of the World Trade Center by the so called 9/11 attack in 2001. The Bush administration adopted war policy for Iraq perhaps as reaction to the 2001 9/11 attack. The issue was put to test in the re-election bid of George W. Bush and the American appeared to have upheld the president. The midterm elections of 2006 however resulted to more Democrats winning more seats in Congress than Republicans. (BBC News, 2006). The obvious issue in latest election was on the War policy on Iraq which might have change already as resulting of electing more democrats to office. 2. How does America’s religiosity affect its politics – elections etc? Does it make it more salient? American religiosity has an effect on US Politics and elections. There are more Protestants than Catholics (Schantz, H.L., 1996) in the US. Their choice of their leaders is there’re believed to have affected the result of the elections (Schantz, H.L., 1996). J.K. Kennedy (Langer G., 2004) was branded as the only Roman Catholic President (Wikipedia, 2007d), implying that they have more non-catholic presidents. In the normal course of events, it could be said that a non-catholic president has more chances of winning the presidency. Religion has also broad effects on many aspects of social life of Americans. No less than their first president George Washington’s has declared in his farewell address: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports." (Fagan, P., 1992) Social life eventually enters into the psychological life of Americans and which necessarily affect how they choose their leaders. 3. What is the US Electoral College, how does it work? What are its strengths & weaknesses? Article Two, Section One of the United States Constitution provides for an election of President and Vice President by Presidential Electors, called The United States Electoral College. The electoral process as provided in the US Constitution was modified in 1804 with the ratification of the 12th Amendment and in 1961 with the ratification of the 23rd Amendment (Wikipedia, 2007) (Paraphrasing made) The mechanics of the Electoral College is therefore indirect with the people electing the electors, who will elect the President and Vice president. These Presidential Electors are actually elected by the popular vote every four years on coinciding with the Election Day for President and Vice President, who’s together with the electors appearing in the ballots but it will be the electors who will cast their votes for President and Vice President. As to how apportionment of electors is done, each state has as many Electors as it has Representatives and Senators. As of this writing, the most populous state is California (55), followed by Texas (34) and New York (31) while the smallest states by population (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming) have three Electors each. Since the number of representatives for each state is determined every ten years by the United States Census, it follows that number of the electoral votes for each state are determined in turn the Census not more often than every ten years. As an exception for the total the number of Electors being made equal to the total membership of both houses of Congress, additional Electors are allocated to the District of Columbia. With the present 100 Senators and 435 Members of the House of Representatives, the total membership of both houses of Congress is 535, plus the 3 Electors allocated to the District of Columbia the total number of Electors for now is 538. To win therefore in a Presidential or Vice Presidential election, successful candidate need to have 270 electoral votes (a majority of 538) (Wikipedia, 2007e) (Paraphrasing made) The strength of the system appear to be in the representative character of mode of electing elector as each elector is determined the number of population in each state. So that the more people in state are, the more electors will be apportioned and the more influence it could have in choosing the president or vice president. Strength is the apparent stability that was created by the system. As compared with the a parliamentary system where there is fusion between the legislative and the executive, the provision of electors would seem to strengthen the check and balances of the three separate branches of the government since the members of the legislative will not elect the head of the executive in the case of a parliamentary type where the prime minister came from the votes casts by member of the legislative body, which is the parliament. This appears to be consistent with American values which value personal freedom and independence of thought. One of its weaknesses appears to be limitation of the right of the people to vote directly for their president. In addition, opponents of the system fear the dilution of the overall will of the people in a close who may have voted popular majority. (Bonsor, 2007) It has however balanced by its advantage of affording stability to the US Politics. In addition, the Americans are not without remedy in changing the elector who will vote for the president. As compared to other democracies which have adopted the presidential type, like the Philippines, where the president could be removed by direct action of the people, the US has yet to have a removal of the president by direct action of the people. But precisely because of the stability provided by the system direct action to remove president has not been resorted to by the Americans. Hence there appears to be an effective working of the impeachment process in the United States. 4. Identify all three branches of government focusing on separation of powers, what is it?, what is system of checks & balances, how does this work? The three branches of government include the legislative, executive and the judiciary. Each of the three branches performs separate function. The legislative function is performed by the US Congress which composed of the upper house called the US Senate and the lower house which is the House of Representatives. The judicial function or power is exercise by the courts down from the Federal US Supreme Court to the different lower courts including State Supreme Court courts. The executive power is wielded by the President, Vice President and Secretaries of the different departments, who may be called the Cabinet. Wikipedia confirmed this by saying: “Under this model the state is divided into branches, and each branch of the state has separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility. But this is only half the story, as each branch is also able to place specified restraints on the powers exerted by the other branches. The normal division of branches is into the executive (or government), the legislative, and the judicial. The US system refers to the branches as "branches of government", while some systems use "government" to describe the executive.” (Wikipedia, 2007f) (Paraphrasing made). With the mention of specified restraints exerted by one branch over the other, there is thus the three powers performing theirs independently. Hence we have a separation of powers, where each department has to check on possible the abuses of the other departments without necessarily preventing their working together for the promotion of public good and public welfare. Inherent therefore with the independent three branches of government is the principle of checks and balances. To understand the principle, Wikipedia, (2007f) explained: “Checks and balances refers to the various procedural rules which allow one branch to contain another, such as the authority of the American President to veto legislation passed by Congress, or the power of Congress to alter the composition or jurisdiction of the federal courts. Each country employing a separation of powers will have its own system of checks and balances; the closer a country lies to the presidential end of the continuum, the more checks that will likely exist between the branches, and the more equal the branches will be in relative powers.” Examples of Legislative Powers include the following: the Power to write laws, Power to enact taxes, authorize borrowing, and set the budget, Power to declare war, Power to start investigations, especially against the executive branch. Executive power include the following: Power to appoint the heads of the executive branch, judges of judicial branch and the military power over the armed forces. Legislative power essentially includes the power to make laws hence the power includes the power to approve the budget, to pass revenue laws and the power to impeach the President and other impeachable officers. (Wikipedia, 2007f) (Paraphrasing made). Conclusion: The pivotal US Presidencies or parties or elections since WW II include the 1964 elections, the crises of 1968 elections, the election of President Reagan to office and the elections that brought Clinton to office. American religiosity has affected the US politics and elections, with number of persons elected into officer in relation to religions of the American. The recognition of the statement made on religion by the first US president Washington is another evidence of religiosity effects on the political life of the American people. The Electoral College appeared to have served the interest of the Americans until this time. Its perceived weakness of cutting the right of the people to have their president and vice president directly voted into office is offset by the strength offered by the system as far as political stability is concerned. The three branches of government are observed in US politics particularly on the independence of one department over the other. The presidential form of democratic type of government appeared to have served the interest and Americans and the stability of their government could be attributed to the checks and balances afforded by the system. References: 1. BBC News (2006), Democrats seize control of House, {www document} URL http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6127216.stm, Accessed February, 10, 2007 2. Bonsor (2007), How the Electoral College Works, {www document}URL http://people.howstuffworks.com/electoral-college6.htm, Accessed February, 10,2007 3. Fagan, P. (1992) Why Religion Matters Even More: The Impact of Religious Practice on Social Stability, www document} URL http://www.heritage.org/Research/Religion/bg1992.cfm, Accessed February, 10,2007 4. Haass R. (1997) The Reluctant Sheriff: The United States after the Cold War, Council on Foreign Relations 5. Langer G.(2004), Legacy of Suspicion Decades After, Few Accept the Official Explanation for JFK Assassination {www document} URL http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/US/JFK_poll_031116.html, Accessed February, 10,2007 6. Menos, D. (1992), Arms over Diplomacy: Reflections on the Persian Gulf War, Praeger Publishers 7. Rose, Gary (2005) The Presidential Nominating Process: A Place for Us? Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 35. 8. Schantz, H.L. (1996), American Presidential Elections: Process, Policy, and Political Change, State University of New York Press, 9. Summy, R. and Salla, M. (1995), Why the Cold War Ended: A Range of Interpretations , Greenwood Press 10. Wikipedia, (2007a), History of the United States, 1964 to 1980 {www document} URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_%281964%E2%80%931980%29, Accessed February, 9,2007. 11. Wikipedia, (2007b), History of the United States, 1980 to 1988 {www document} URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_%281964%E2%80%931980%29, Accessed February, 9,2007. 12. Wikipedia, (2007c), History of the United States, 1988 to present, {www document} URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_%28since_1988%29, Accessed February, 9,2007. 13. Wikipedia, (2007d), www document} John F. Kennedy {www document}URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy, Accessed February, 10,2007 14. Wikipedia, (2007e), Electoral College, {www document}URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College Accessed February, 10,2007 15. Wikipedia, (2007f), Separation of powers {www document}URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_powers .Accessed February, 10,2007 Read More