Obama: Higher Education Standards is key to keeping Country Competitive

As an educator myself, I was pretty happy when I read this article.  Our schools need better and tougher standards and policies, ones that dont let students "just get by".  We need better teachers, and more programs instead of eliminating them due to budget constraints...after all, the ones who will be running our country in the future are the ones who are educating themselves today.  I agree with lifting the ban on stem-cell research.  The UK and other nations have been studying with stem-cells for years and this is just one step we need to take if we are to keep up with out international competitors.  

Voting Behavior

The exit polls show us how many different factors affected voting behavior in the 2008 election.  I chose to look at the differences from 2004 and 2008 among party identification, gender/sex, education/income, and religion.  Party identification held constant for the most part, but in the remaining factors, Democrats made big gains as the Republicans lost ground and proved Herrington and Keefe's statements wrong for this past election.

Our book suggests that there are a few factors that influence in how people will vote.  The first, and most important, is your party identification.  Do you consider yourself a Democrat or a Republican?  Depending on how you answer is going to mean which way you will vote as well.  Other factors include, gender, sex, party politics, religion, education, and income.  Every individual is affected by these factors and therefore influences his/her vote, not every factor affects each individual the same or to the same degree as the next person. 

 

1.  Most important political opinion is your Party Identification

-  Exit polls suggest that this was true for the most part in the last election where 90% of the electorate who considered themselves Democrats voted for Obama while the other 10% voted for McCain.  McCain also receive 90% of the votes from those who considered themselves to be Republican.

-  Our readings have suggested that people do not generally switch their party identification all that much, meaning one day they do not consider themselves to be a Democrat and the next day consider themselves to be a Republican.  Changes, if they do occur at all in a lifetime, generally take many years.  Our book also suggests that Republicans are more likely than Democrats to stick with their party loyalty and identification, as well as show up to vote more so than Democrats that is why this poll is interesting to me for a few reasons.   First of all, from the 2004 election to the 2008 election, 89% of Democrats who voted for Kerry also voted for Obama to Bush/McCain 82%, showing that Democrats stuck to party lines more so than Republicans did.   Also, 71% of those who voted for Obama did not vote in the past election came to cast ballots in 2008, proving both of those statements Herrington and Keefe told us to be false in this last election.

Vote for President in 2004

Total Obama              McCain               Other/No Answer 

Kerry (37%)	89%	9%	2%
Bush (46%)	17%	82%	1%
Someone Else (4%)	66%	24%	10%
Did Not Vote (13%)	71%	27%	2%

2. Gender and Sex

- Women are more liberal/vote Democratic and Men are more Conservative/tend to vote more Republican (H and K, 194).  In the recent election, Obama surprisingly won more of the percentage of both women and men than McCain did.  With that being said, McCain won the “white” vote whereas Obama won majority of his votes from minorities.  The only area where Obama did not lose whites was among the White 18-29 age group.

 

3.  Religion

-  Those who attend church regularly are more Republican by todays data (H and K, 194).  The trend held true for this last elections.  Those who attended church weekly or more than weekly cast more of their votes for McCain than those who attended monthly or less.  Herington and Keefe made the point that Republicans hold core traditional family and religious values, which impacts their political opinions (H and K, 195).

-  In recent elections of 2000 and 2004, Catholics voted more Republican than Democratic, but the exit polls from CNN suggest that Protestants casted the most votes for McCain while Catholics, Jews, and Other denominations casted more of their votes for Obama. 

 

4.  Education and Income

- Those with higher educations tend to vote more than those who don’t and those with higher educations generally have higher incomes and tend to vote Republican (H and K, 192).  This next table is also interesting to me, whites who earned more than $50,000 voted McCain while Non-whites who earned more than $50,000 voted for Obama.  While Herrington and Keefe generally said, those with higher incomes tend to vote Republican, this table suggests it does not hold true all of the time.  My reasoning behind this is that the 2008 election was a stepping stone for minorities to gain a true voice in government by electing the first black president, and when you have African American supporters like Beyonce, Oprah and Young Jeezy supporting you so do the other rich minorities.  That may have made the difference in this election compared to what Herrington and Keefe said about income and party identification.

 

Vote by Income and Race

Total                                       Obama             McCain             Other/No Answer 

Whites Under $50,000 (25%)	47%	51%	2%
Whites Over $50,000 (49%)	43%	56%	1%
Non-Whites Under $50,000 (13%)	86%	13%	1%
Non-Whites Over $50,000 (13%)	75%	22%	3%

Earmarks

This article discusses Congress' opinion on Obama's bills and the Congress' power to insert earmarks within them. Congress decides on earmark spending, even though Obama had asked to stop future earmarks, but its ultimately a decision of Congress.

Role of the minority party

The role of the minority party in Congress is to help shape public policy by taking on an aggressive and creative role in the legislative process because they are the minority and lack power. On some issues the minority party cooperates and supports majority efforts and policies when bipartisan proposals are presented. However, what we hear about most often are the attempts by the minority to defeat the initiatives and policies that the majority party presents. The minority party presents alternatives to the majority policies or uses the fantastic method of the filibuster, which gives the minority some power in the Senate, to completely shut and talk down a policy or initiative that may have quickly passed in the House. Taking about the bill and being an opposition by voicing their opinion may make the majority rethink their proposal. If some of the minority members do not agree with it, neither with Americans and that could affect their popularity as well as how they are perceived by the public. This check and balance is a perfect example of democracy at work. The House reflects majority wishes and the Senate reflects popular opinion, and allows for discussion to take place, delaying bills to be passed too quickly and prevent the majority from acting too quickly. It is important for those in the minority to “show up to work” to prevent the tyranny of the majority party.

Our reading suggested that how the minority party acts is a reflection on the current events and conditions of the time period. Our readings gave the example of Republicans blocking liberal tax-and-spend schemes and efforts, which they felt, would weaken national security in an age during a serious global terrorism threat. The minority does block initiatives such as these that may threaten the American people, but they also can block initiatives on purpose just because they are angry with the majority party and feel that they are pushing too much influence in government by pushing through “ambitious legislative” agenda.

What this opposition means for democracy is that in order to preserve and protect Americans rights and freedoms, politicians must work together to shape government. In a democratic system, there needs to be an opposition to voice differences, and hold political debates about issues and topics, otherwise it wouldn’t be very democratic, it would be a majority rules government. The majority party wants to enact a number of different policies and programs into law, and the minority party is free to criticize, halt, and offer an alternative to majority party policies, ideas, and proposals. Bipartisanship is needed to get policies and ideas passed. Broad alliances and cooperation with other members is the most democratic was of passing initiatives and governing the nation effectively. The opposition of the minority party on the majority party is key to any democracy. Struggle and competition is needed in being able to serve the American people and having a successful government, and even though it makes life in Congress difficult, its good for us.