Illegal Immigration

There are more than ten million illegal immigrants in the United States today and this divides America. There are pros and cons to illegal immigration. The pros of illegal immigration some people would say are that all these illegal immigrants help the economy by adding tax revenue, they expand the low cost labor pool, and it increases the money circulation. Other reasons that illegal immigration is not bad is that some people say they bring good values, they are just trying to have the American dream, they do jobs that no one else wants to do, and opposition is just because of racism. The people who are against illegal immigration say that breaking the law by crossing the border illegally or staying longer than your visa permits should be deported and not rewarded with citizenship and access to social services. They say that these people are criminals and social/economic burdens to the average tax paying American citizen. There have been many ways the government has tried to solve the problem of illegal immigration. In 2010 during the lame duck session, a vote came up on the Dream Act. The Dream Act would allow citizenship for illegal immigrants who were between a set age range and enrolled in American Universities or the military for at least two years but it was not passed. This relates to class because of when the Dream Act came up. It came up during a lame duck session. We learned what a lame duck was in class. It is when someone who is in office who knows that they will not be getting re-elected. I think that the government needs to do more to stop all the illegal immigrants from coming into the United States because they take our jobs and they sometimes bring there gangs or violence with them to the US.

sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lame_duck_%28politics%29
 http://www.buchtelite.com/opinion/an-unpleasant-dream-illegal-immigration-students-and-the-dream-act-1.2132567
http://immigration.procon.org/

Gridlock

Gridlock is the inability to accomplish goals. Gridlock is a direct consequence of divided government. A divided government is when one party controls the white house and the other party controls one or both of the houses of congress. Some say divided government is good because it makes opposition to those in power and it limits spending and expansion of undesirable laws. In our government right now there is a divided government. The democrats control the white house and the republicans control the house of representatives. This causes gridlock because if the president who is a democrat wants to pass let's say his new health care bill, he has to put it through congress and without their approval he can not get something done that would probably be very beneficial to the American people. Some say that gridlock does not exist. They say this because they make the point that it is just part of our type of government and that we will have indecision with anything we do. The cons of gridlock are that it shuts down government operations. The pros of gridlock are that it slows down the decision making process which is an example of checks and balances. I think that gridlock does exist and is not a good part of our government. I think this because why should we have two sides in our government when we could all be on the same team and we could make the United States a better place to live instead of just arguing  with each other.





Sources:
Youtube.com
Wikipedia.com
Notes

Drinking Age

The controversy of what age you should legally be allowed to drink alcohol has been a very controversial issue for a very long time. All 50 of the states in the United States have in law that no one under the age of twenty one is allowed to drink but there are minor exceptions in some states like if you are under parental supervision, at home, or it is for a medical purpose. In twenty nine states if you drink underage privately with parental consent it is allowed. In thirty states you are allowed to drink for religious purposes. In thirteen states you are allowed to drink for educational purposes. People who want the age to be lowered say that having in law that you can't drink until you are twenty one only makes drinking look even cooler and pushes drinking into private and not as controlled environments leading to more health and life endangering behaviors. People who oppose lowering the minimum drinking age from twenty one say that teens can not handle the responsibility of alcohol and that they are more likely to harm or even kill someone by drinking before they are twenty one. They back this up with the fact that traffic fatalities decreased when the MLDA increased. I think the drinking age should not be lowered because there is not reason for it. All that drinking does is lead to some kind of problem. There is no real benefit to drinking. It can lead to alcoholism, death from diseases, and drunkenness which leads to a lot more problems. If the age was lowered I think America would be in an even bigger mess then what we are in now. So, I think the age should stay the same.

Sources:
http://drinkingage.procon.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nj_ayQtv7I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qQzYUZ_MNU&feature=related

Death Penalty

The death penalty has been very controversial for a long time. 1136 people have been executed from 1997 to 2008. Most of these executions have been from lethal injection. Lethal injection is when they give you a shot that kills you. Most of the people that have to face the death penalty are murderers, treason, espionage, and other crimes. 72% of the public support the death penalty, 25% say that they oppose it, and 5% have no say on the topic. People who oppose the death penalty say that it doesn't stop crime at all, wrongly gives the government the power to take life, and they say that it creates social injustices by targeting colored people and people who can't afford attorneys more than other people. The people who support the death penalty support it because they say that it is a great tool for preserving law and order, that it helps stop crime, and it costs less than having people going to prison for life. They also try to say that it is alright because of the "eye for an eye" saying. That means if you were able to take a life that you should have your own life taken in return. Another argument for having the death penalty is that it helps families who have lost a loved one to come to some kind of closure and that if someone killed someone and they have to face the death penalty it ensures that they will never do it again. I think that the death penalty is not alright. The majority of America support the death penalty but there has been a slight decline since there was a peak in 1994. I think it is not good because I think that everyone deserves a second chance. You can always change someone, even if they have done something really bad. I also think it is bad because I can't think of any crime that you should be killed over. Another reason I think it is not good because I think that a prisoner would prefer to have the death penalty than spend the rest of his life in prison so why give him the satisfaction. The public opinion is that if they had to choose between life in prison with no possibility of parole or have the death penalty, 52% prefer the death penalty and 43% prefer the life imprisonment.

Sources:
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/
http://www.gallup.com/poll/9913/Death-Penalty.aspx#3

Reflection Assignment

Republicans are rising to power and are winning the battle against the new healthcare law. In Wisconsin there was a major change in their political ideology. They went from being highly democratic with liberal views and being a front runner in wanting to carry out the new federal health care law and using it to regulate and change the medical delivery system, to being very republican and conservative by electing in a new republican governor and having all of the progress they made in getting the new health care law to pass to a halt. The new governor's name is Scott Walker. He said that on the first day of his term he will put all the progress of getting the new law to pass to a halt and he will have Wisconsin join the multistate lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of the new law. Since this happened, the public opinion of Wisconsin's people has changed to oppose the bill rather than supporting it. The public opinion of the United States is really unknown because most people have litttle knowledge on what the new law will do.They have become a state of no enthusiasm or with somewhat of a moderate view of things. I don't think that the are many political cleavages in this event because it treats all people the same way. The bill is trying to give all people the same health care so there is really no differences in it. The political elite who oppose this new law are having million dollar campaigns that are national, to try to oppose this law. An example of someone doing this would be Rick Scott, the governor of Florida, who used to be a hospital chain executive who spent 5 million dollars on a national campaign against this new democratic health care law. Mr. Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, said that he thinks that when the government gets too involved it messes up the marketplace and just makes the costs go up, which is an example of political socialization because i think he probably said this because of something he witnessed during his life. "Now on you are going to see a very cautious Wisconsin", said State Senator Alberta Darling. All the progress they made at getting this new law established has gone down the drain and has had the breaks put on. I really do not know what to think on this because I don' t pay for my health care but my parents do and I have listened to what they have said. This is political sociology by the way. They have had questions like " what happens to people who get health care from their employers" and " who's going to pay for it" and that made me think that I really don't like this new law because there is so much uncertainty involved. I predict that the new law will not be passed and will not go through because 82% of people rate their healthcare as excellent or good, which I think means that if people think that their healthcare is good enough and they are satisfied they will not want change. Another reason I don't think that the new law will pass because 61% of people prefer a private healthcare and only 34% want a government run system for healthcare.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_socialization
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/us/politics/19wisconsin.html?_r=2&ref=politics
http://www.youtube.com/
http://www.gallup.com/poll/144869/Americans-Ratings-Own-Healthcare-Quality-Remain-High.aspx
http://www.gallup.com/poll/144839/Split-Whether-Gov-Ensure-Healthcare.aspx