Interest Groups, by Shea Nolan

Pluralism is the idea that democratic politics consists of various interest groups working against each other, balancing one another out so that the common good is achieved. It is necessary to good government to have interest groups because they allow people the ability to contribute to the democratic process. Also, they prevent any one minority from imposing its will in the majority. Therefore interest groups are a vital part to a healthy democracy.

Some believe that pluralism is flawed because there are so many conflicting interests in society. They argue that the interest groups interfere with democracy because they seek benefits for a minority of people rather than the greater good of the majority. Furthermore, other critics argue that interest groups only benefit an economic group, which allows them to have greater financial resources for their use. Nearly two-thirds of lobbyists in Washington represent economic groups. Therefore, interest groups tend to ignore the poor in favor to middle and upper class Americans. Charges of unfair influence are often vague and unsupported by facts. Large organizations put forth the effort to create a correlation between donations and votes, but that is not real evidence that votes have been purchased. It’s against the law to actually buy votes and if found guilty of doing so a vigorous prosecution will acre. But just recently both a lobbyist and politician have been found guilty and punished for giving and receiving bribes. This shows the system works and will deter others from acting in the same way. Not able to buy votes, special interest groups instead give money to politicians’ election campaigns. Special interest groups give money to those candidates who have already supported their policies.  

Since the 1960’s the number of voters has substantially declined in the US, but the number of interest groups activity in lobbying the government has increased dramatically. The main objective of an interest group is to try to influence every branch and every level of government that best fits their policy goals. Though interest groups serve an importance to democratic government, they’ve had gained a negative standing in America, due to the fact of dishonest lobbying. The influence of special interest groups is increasing. New campaign finance laws are needed to check this growth and give politics back to the people. We should follow the British system, which puts severe limits on individual candidates’ spending and bans political television ads, but gives political parties free access to the national media for regulated political broadcasts.

The Oldest of them All, by Moranda Zimmer

            In class we had a discussion about the United States Constitution, as well as others around the world.  It caught my attention that the United States has the oldest constitution, with Norway and Belgium closely behind.  In different classes throughout high school and undergrad we learn varies things about the constitution, but a lot of interesting facts of it are left out.  I wanted to find all the facts about the United States constitution and learn more about it. 

            The United States Constitution has 4,400 words in it, and is the oldest but shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world.  September 17 of each year is a day marked as the anniversary of the day that the framers signed the document.  This day is different from the Fourth of July, because that is the day our country became a country, and this day is to remember the day that our constitution was officially signed.  The oldest person to sign the constitution was Benjamin Franklin at the age of 81, and the youngest was Jonathon Dayton at the age of 26.  Because of Benjamin Franklin’s poor health, he needed help signing the Constitution, and when he signed it he had tears rolling down his face. One specific fact I found extremely interesting was that Thomas Jefferson did not sign the constitution as he was out the States serving as the U.S. Minister when this took place.  Also, the only two presidents that signed the constitution were George Washington and James Madison. 

            There were 55 representatives who attended the convention.  Of these individuals 34 of them were lawyers, eight of them had signed the Declaration of Independence, and about half of them were Revolutionary War veterans.  The rest of them ranged anywhere from farmers, educators, ministers, judges, doctors, and financiers.  Some of them, about one/fourth owned a large amount of land, but all of them held some sort of public office, such as being a Congressman or a governor. 

Other interesting fact about the constitution is what our country was like at the time of the signing.  The United States had a population of 4 million, and Philadelphia was the largest city at the time with a population of 40,000.  Our nation now has more than 300 million people in it.  When Benjamin Franklin died at the age of 84, his funeral set the record for the largest public gathering up to that time. 

            All these facts combined, as well as many others, make up how our constitution was formed, and what it is today. It’s what our country run off of, and the small details behind it are so important to the overall picture.  It was really interesting learning more about what’s behind the constitution that often gets by passed.      

 Works Cited:

http://www.constitutionfacts.com/us-constitution-amendments/fascinating-facts/

Religion is changing right along with Society, by Moranda Zimmer

While talking in class about religion and how people tend to go to church less now than they used to really got my attention as I think about my own life.  My grandparents will not miss a Sunday of church, unless they are extremely sick.  However, my family, as regular attenders, will miss every once in awhile.  Looking at this from a bigger picture is this how it is all across the United States or just in certain areas? 

            A recent survey was done by Gallup showing that the ratings have been the lowest they have ever been.  The survey was done to see how American’s felt religious influence was in the United States.  It came back with results that said “77 percent of American said that religion is loosing it’s influence on the American life, while only 20 percent said religion has gained in influence” (Kaleem).  The most interesting part of this all is that only one year after the September 11^th attack Americans believed that the influence of religion was increasing.  However this chart shows a different response.

            Another interesting thing about religion is not only how people are attending less, but how often people change their religion in the United States.  “More than half of American adults say they have changed religious affiliation at some point in their lives” (Paulson).  The most interesting part of this is that most people switch out of the religion they were raised in by age 24 and many change religions more than once in their lifetime.  One of the most jaw dropping finding was that “one in ten Americans is now a former Catholic, and about half of the former Catholics are now Protestants, and about half are now unaffiliated” (Paulson). 

            Many reasons due to changing a religion have to due to getting married and changing for the spouse.  As well as not agreeing with the church's beliefs anymore.  With the uproar controversy topics such as abortion, same sex marriages, birth control, as well as the gender of the pastor/priest this has let people to either switch churches, or just not attend anymore.  This graph also shows some reasons why people leave their childhood religion. 

I found all this information really fascinating because I am from such a small town that I really have never looked at religion across the United States.  It was shocking to realize how many people just don’t go to church anymore, and how many people change their religion over their lifetime.  My religion is something that I cherish very much so this topic was fitting for my interest.

Works Cited:

Kaleem, Jaweed. "Religious Influence In U.S. Seen As Decreasing, But Most Americans Want More: Survey." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 29 May 2013. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/29/religions-influence-us_n_3354499.html>.

Paulson, Michael. “Why do Americans change their faith? – Articles of Faith – Boston.com” Boston, MA news 27 Apr. 2009. 10 Oct. 2013. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles_of_faith/2009/04/why_do_american.html

“Big Brother” U.S. by Anonymous

            The United States has always been seen as an advocate for democracy. Since our revolution it makes sense, considering our government has worked for us for so many years. A lot of countries look up to the U.S. as a sort of “big brother” so whenever something goes wrong in the world other countries expect us to step in.

            In situations like Syria it just isn’t that easy. The U.S. just can’t step in and start forcing beliefs are people. The United States has to be careful with how we go about trying to spread our democratic beliefs. Other countries though think that it is America’s job to help some of the under-industrialized countries find their way.

            I mean what is the big deal? America has the time and power to help out other countries right? Well, not really. Shouldn’t we focus on fixing ourselves before we try and fix other countries? Right now the United States just doesn’t have the  money, but we do have the military power and the weapons.  Is it right to bomb Syria though? A lot of Americans don’t think that that’s the correct way to try and help a country. Many Americans don’t want to get involved at all, they just want Syria to handle it themselves. So just because the United States has to the weapons to attack Syria many people don’t think it’s right for the U.S. to go shove its weight around in other countries.

                The U.S. is looked upon by other countries as a strong nation that needs to back up the smaller nations that are more under-developed than we are. Sometimes a country needs to learn to solve their own problems. The U.S. can’t be jumping in whenever any country has inner turmoil. Especially when, in examples like Syria, their internal fighting has been going on for some time now, so why now would the United States want to intervene? Why wouldn’t the U.S. have stepped in earlier?

            The United States has always been looked on as a “big brother.”  The U.S. always tries to stand up for the weak and defenseless and spread democracy. Sometimes we have to think though, who is going to stand up for the United States when we need it. We need to start thinking more about our own country before we go and try to fix the world.

"An Adventure Abroad" by Jessica Haaga

I  have now been in Brookings, South Dakota, for two weeks and so far I have had a blast. Of course there is a huge difference both culturally and socially, but it is a good life experience. The only thing that truly bothers me is the transportation around here. Or maybe I should say the lack thereof. Just to do a comparison between Sweden and America is quite easy but to understand why America has this strange system is harder.  I will start with comparing the big cities where public transportation is more common in each country.

In San Francisco the town is full with a variety of public transportation such as buses, underground railway and streetcars. It also combines the city with others via suburban trains. This way of transportation suits the 3.4 million people that live in San Francisco perfectly.  It is also easy for foreigners to get a hold on the system because of its webpage that tells you everything you need and want to know about public transportation in and around San Francisco. 

“The streetcar in San Francisco will take you around downtown" 

They also use a ferry that will take you to places such as Napa Valley and Oakland, where you also can ride an out of state bus to.

Sweden`s correspondence to San Francisco is a city in the south called Gothenburg. With its population of up to a half a million people this makes Gothenburg one of the largest cities in Sweden, Stockholm is the largest one with its population being nearly 900,000 people downtown. From Gothenburg you can go by ferry to both Denmark and Norway. The city has a “Gothenburg City Card” that gives you the opportunity to get on all the transportation without buying a ticket each time.  

When I compare a smaller town, since Brookings can hardly count as a big town, I have decided to compare it with my recent hometown called Kalmar. It lies in the south and borders Öland, an island famous for their windmill. The population in Kalmar vary since it is, just like Brookings, a university city, but for the most part the population lies at 35,000 people during the school semester. In Kalmar we have a train station that will take us both north and south. We have busses that go all the way to Stockholm and back down to Malmö (a city connected to Denmark by a bridge). Within the city center we have busses that go every 20 minutes during daytime and 30 minutes during the night shift. Though, riding your bike is the most efficient form of transport around town, for no cars are allowed in the cities center. In Brookings there are sidewalks among almost every road, which is a good thing, though we don´t have a car and the fact that it only takes us 20 minutes to walk over to Wal-Mart makes a car unnecessary. 

 

Sweden is a country with an area of 450,000 km² making it as big as California, although the population differs by about 40 million people. The Swedish population is use to public transporting in a whole different way. So why is it that the public transportation works in Sweden and large parts of Europe but not the US?

            First of all, we have to understand that while Europe was expanding and starting to interact between countries with trading, the US always kept their trading relatively local. People seemed to be able to take care of themselves by just going to their neighbor and trade meat for milk. The idea of a new country being born made people from Europe want to immigrate and to live a life of freedom. You were no longer forced to stay and be treated badly at work, because if that happened you could just move and find happiness somewhere else in this huge unexplored country. This also led to a population density that forced people not to interact with one and another. With this thought growing it became socially acceptable to be totally dependent on your car. These days almost every American with a driver license, outside the huge cities, has their own car. To start and build a railroad now would cost the public a lot of money and since the gas is so cheap here in comparison to the European price it does not seem as effective to have a railway going throughout the country as it does for everyone to just own a car. In Sweden you would have to pay 2.26 US dollars to get 0.26 gallons (9/3/2013). Compared to here, you just have to pay 3.80 for a whole gallon.

            Also the size of the US has a big influence on either taking the train or your car. It is “cheaper” to fly across the country if you count in the time that it would take to get on a bus or a train.

            The Swedish government helps the Swedish transportation companies by giving them a contribution in various forms. The most increasing demands involve the environment and to keep it “green”. Companies get money so that they can repair or buy new public transportation. This change results in cheaper trips for the residents. The government has also initiated a congestion tax in Stockholm and Gothenburg to keep the traffic out of the city center. There have been suggestions to introduce congestion taxes in the larger cities in USA. Among the pilot cities was San Francisco, where they plan to carry through the suggestion in 2015. With the money from student tuition they want to increase the sidewalks and bicycle lanes.

            So my conclusion of all this is that even though the environment would improve if people used public transportation, I don’t think that there will be a change in not using your car.