Notes/UNB/Year 5/Semester 1/HIST1451/In class notes.md

Systems

Ideology

• In the mid 20th century, it was thought ideology was a circle
• This idea has been challenged and is no longer the consensus

Culture

• A set of principles, ideas, attitudes, or values that are commonly held but not integrated into a formal system of thought

Differences between ideology and cultural

Ideological: Che Guevara t-shirt with Obama poster styling Cultural: Che Guevara red t-shirt

Political Culture

Conservatives	Liberals
Hyper individualism	Communtarian
Materialsm	Motivated by factors other than economics
Compettion	Group motivated
Suspicion of others	Belief in progress - moving forward
Live for the moment or highlight the past	Egalitarian
Hierarchy

Ideologies

Communism (Left)

• Classless, stateless, money-less communal living
• Common ownership of the means of production

Socialism

• Economic system where the means of production, capital, and agriculture are owned by the State
• Strict limits of private enterprises, limited accumulation of wealth, work together to provide a high degree of income equality

Social Democrat (Big in United States)

• Highlights the importance of the democracy in moving forward a socialist state
• Believes in a highly regulated and heavily taxed private enterprise but they do not want the sate to own banks or make cars
• Wealthy should pay more taxes
• Free college education
• Medicate for all

Liberalism

• 19th Century Liberalism
  • The first term to appear in west European politics in the 19th century
  • Used to describe a representative government with a free market
  • John Locke: The three principles
    • Individualism
    • Equality
    • Property
  • Became a part of american liberalism philosophy
  • Governments exist not because of divine intervention but rather to protect the rights of individuals
  • Americans did not refer to themselves this way, but was later applied in the 20th century to describe early american ideology
• Laissez Faire Liberalism
  • Turn of the 1890s century til mid 1930s
  • Social Darwinism
  • Government should not interfere in the lives of the people or in industry
  • No social nets
  • If misfortune found you it was probably your fault
  • If you were a captain of industry you were doing something right and should be rewarded
  • Turn of the Century
    • Industrialization, urbanization, and immigration
    • Rise of progressives, with the notion of order, control and progress
• 20th Century Liberalism
  • New Deal liberalism
  • State over the individual
  • Equality
  • Focus on progress. Making ourselves and society better. We can get better
  • The government has an important role to play in improving society
  • Values diversity

Progressive-ism

• 20th Century Progressivism
  • 1900-1920
  • Progressive era
  • Social reform movement
  • Both Democrats and Republican. Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson
  • COP = Control, Order, Progress
  • Child Labor Laws, Food safety
• 21st Century Progressivism
  • 2000s
  • Leftist Democrats
  • Congressional Progressive caucus founded 1991
  • "Medicare for all"
  • Dead with economic hardships "living wage"
  • Civil service reform, food safety, rights for women and US workers, climate change, Humane immigration policies

Conservatism

• The word (and human kind) is flawed. It will always be so
• Society should be governed by natural laws and ones conscience
• Tradition and hierarchy are important
• Government exist to protect individual freedoms
• Economic freedom is an extension of individual freedom
• Taking the constitution literally, at face value

Libertarian-ism

• Similar to conservatism (fiscal conservatism)
• But socially liberal
• Liberty is the core principle
• Maximize political freedom
• Skeptical of the authority of state power

Capitalism

• Economic Indivudialism
• Private ownership of the means of production (business) and capital (banks, land, property)
• Low levels of taxation and regulation
• Unfettered competition. No subsidies, ballots or protectionism
• Free flow of goods, services and capital both domestically and internationally
• GNP - Gross national product, includes GDP

Fascism (Right)

• Authoritarianism that relies on dictatorial power
• One party dictatorship
• It holds that opposition should be forcibly suppressed
• The strong regimentation of the economy
• The government controls all aspects of behavior. Social regimentation

Trump-ism: The philosophy espoused by Donald Trump

• Authoritarian
• National: America first (make america great again)
• Traditional: Reliance on old industries - coal, steel, farming
• Hierarchical (race and gender)
• Populist (anti-elitist, sort of)
• Anti-immigrant
• Cuts taxes, opposes free trade
• Opposes government regulation
• Anti-abortion (sort of)

American Government

Constitutional Convention (1787)

• Tasked with designing a new government and writing a new constitution
• More points in slides

Article II The President

• The executive power shall be vested in a president of the united states of america
• Executive power refers to the power to execute the law passed by congress
• The Presidency
  • Commander and chief of the military branches
  • Supervision of government functions
  • Pardon criminals
  • Make treaties
  • Appoint ambassadors, other members of the executive branch and supreme court justices
  • More points in slides

19th Century	20th Century
More prestige than power	Nationalization of politics
President was a secondary figure	Weakening of political parties
Most presidents were politically weak	Presonalization of the presidency (Focus on Candidate rather than party)
Military figures	Top five presidents from the 20th century:
2 strongest presidents: Andrew Jackson and Abe Lincoln	Franklin Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson

The Vice President

• If there was no consensus, at first, on what exactly the power of the president should be there was even less consensus on what the powers of the vice president should be and yet even less consensus on who the vice president should be
• Until 1801, the vice president was the person who second finished in the presidential election (A tie in 1800 meant that this system clearly had to be changed)
• Now the candidate for president selects their running mate
• Together they constitute a ticket (the Republican Ticket and the Democratic Ticket)

Duties of the Vice President

• There are formal duties
• The vice president is the presiding office of the Senate, but only votes to break a tie
• The vice president presides over impeachment hearings, but not over the impeachment of the president
• Most importantly the vice president takes over the office of the president in any event of the presidents removal

The Vice-Presidency

• In addition to formal duties, the vice president has both informal and symbolic responsibilities
• Informal: Advise the president
• Symbolic: Balance the ticket (Joe Biden was and old and white man, but Kamala was a black woman, 22 years younger. Donald Trump has led a controversial life but Mike Pence is an evangelical Christian who appeals to an important Republican consistency)
• Tim Waltz is an older white man who was former teacher and high school coach. JD Vance is a Harvard education ... more on point in slide

Electoral College

Gerrymandering

1912 (?)

• 8/10 most gerrymandered states favor republicans
• Supreme court has struct down gerrymandering
• Louisiana - Gerrymandered to Favor Republicans
• Maryland - Gerrymandered to Favor Democrats

Congress

Senate

• Upper House
• Elected every six years
• 2 Senators per state
• Approves legislation
• Cooler heads

House of representatives

• Lover house
• Elected every two years
• Representatives determined by population (435)
• Writes legislation
• Hot heads

What does the house do?

• Impeachment begins in the House
• The House controls revenue bills
• It is the House that must initiate tax bills
• It is the House that initiates appropriation bills (spending)
• If no president should receive a majority of votes in the Electoral College, then the House of Representatives would choose the next President. In this case, each state would only get one vote.
• Need 218 for the majority Right now, republicans control the house, with 222 seats, democrats have 211

Supreme Court

• Established by Article III of the constitution
• Highest court in the Federal Judiciary (in contrast to the states)
• It has jurisdiction over all federal and state court cases that involve a point of federal law and a number of original jurisdictional issues (including Ambassadors)
• Judicial Review: It can invalidate a statue for violating the Constitution
• It includes a chief justice and Eight associate justices
• The justices have a lifetime appointment, but can resign or be removed
• When a vacancy opens, the president with advice and consent appoints a new justice
• Congress Passes the law, Executive executes the law, and the supreme court decides if the law is legal

The Politicization of the Supreme Court

• Robert Bork
  • Nominated by Ronald Reagan in 1987
  • Viewed as a very conservative judge
  • Opposition was based on his stated desire to roll back civil rights decisions
  • Involved "The Saturday Night Massacre"
  • Final vote 42 for 45 against
• Clarence Thomas & Anita Hill
  • Sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill
  • Senate vote on Clarence Thomas in supreme court
  • Joe Biden vetoed the rejection and he assumed a supreme court justice role
• Merrick Garland and Neil Gorsuch
  • Nominated by Barrack Obama, but lost in the senate
  • Mich McConnell refused to bring his name before the Senate
  • Obama was livid, but Hillary Clinton was expected to win
• Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford
  • Similar to Clarence Hill, accused of sexual assault/harassment
  • Republicans controlled the senate, so he was voted in
• Amy Coney Barrett
  • Donald Trump's third appointment
  • Devote Roman Catholic
  • 5th woman to serve on the court
  • Nominated to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• "Notorious RBG"
  • The right to sign a mortgage without a man
  • Right to have a bank account without a husband or father
  • The right to have a job without being discriminated based on Gender
  • The right for women to be pregnant, have kids, and work

How to become a supreme court justice

• Get nominated by the president
• Senate judiciary committee conducts hearings and votes on wherever your name should be given to the senate for a vote. Then the full senate considers the candidates and usually they vote to confirm
• Rejections are uncommon, only 12 rejections have ever happened in US history
• The court nominates has become a partisan exercise. You now need to control the senate to get a justice confirmed

Everything is on the table

• Size of the court is not set in the constitution
  • 1808 - 7
  • 1837 - 9
  • 1863 - 10
  • After WW2 - Back to 9
• Statehood to
  • District of Columbia
  • Puerto Rico

SICK FOR A WEEK

American Elections 1980-2016

Ronald Reagan (1980-1988)

• 40th president
• republican
• fiscal conservative (somewhat, cut social programs, increased military spending)
• big issues
  • crime
  • welfare
• limited government
• activist foreign policy
  • not in a UN way (?)
  • she used a word for it but it slipped by
• social conservative
• new voters: socially conservative working class, middle class in the west, southern conservatives and fundamentalists

1980 - 1984

He won in 1980 and in 1984 was a landslide victory for Reagan.

• More than 1/4 of registered democrats voted for Reagan
• African Americans went 91% of Walter Mondale
• 66% of Latinos voted democrat
• In 1984 the american electorate was 89% white and they went for Reagan 2/1.
• Since 1968 the democrats have lost 4/5 presidential races

What caused the realignment

• Disruption of the existing political order because of the emergence of one or more strongly divisive issues
• An election where voters shift their support strongly in favor of one party
• A major change in policy brought about by the stronger party
• An enduring change in the party coalitions, which works to the lasting advantage of the dominant party

George H.W. Bush

• One term president
• Not traditionally understood as a period of significance
• Yet most of the changes that came to define the 21st century in the 1990s
• "Read my lips, no new taxes"
• And then new taxes
• Third straight victory for the GOP
• Third straight landslide
• Bush took 50 states
• GOP won 5/6 elections

1992

• Modern political problems emerge
  • Gridlock
  • Modern talking points
  • Immigration
  • Culture war
  • etc
• Why?
  • Republican Revolution
  • Began personal attacks, This was new in the house
  • Republican became tougher and more militant under this leadership
  • First republican Speaker in the house in forty years
  • A transfer of power so jarring people began asking of the Democratic Party had a future.
  • Quick backlash against "Gingrich-ism". White collar, professionals found themselves alienated from the new republican party.
  • Contract with America
    • Legislative agenda put forward by the Republican Party during the 1994 congressional elections
    • 100 issues
    • Laws that apply to the rest of the country apply to congress
    • Cut committees
    • Require 3/5th vote to increase taxes
    • Cut welfare programs
• A step too far
  • Ken Starr, White Water, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, Linda Trippe
  • "It all depends on what the meaning of 'is' is."
  • House charged Clinton with two crimes: Lying under oath and obstruction of justice
  • Trial in the senate; neither received the necessary 2/3rds vote
  • 2nd President to be impeached, but never convicted