Blog Stage Two

The following article by the New York Times regards President Trump's recent declaration of national emergency over the border wall and Nancy Pelosi's (speaker of the house) effort to overturn the declaration. The article is written in anticipation for the house vote Pelosi has scheduled this upcoming Tuesday. This article is important to read because it discusses a larger problem than the surface level fight for border security, it outlines the fight for the defense of balanced powers on part of the entire legislative branch and checks and balances of government branches established in the constitution. President Trump's declaration, if it prevails, is a bigger issue than unlawfully redirecting funds towards the construction of the border wall. Essentially, the act will establish a precedent that will forever change the balance of powers. The legislative branch takes charge in government spending, and with an overreaching executive who hopes to unconstitutionally redirect up to 3.6 billion dollars of military construction funding towards the border wall fund, what does that say for future executives? What's to stop future presidents from overreaching? If the resolution led by Pelosi does not pass, it gives the executive branch power over the legislative branch in areas that were not intended by the founding fathers, fundamentally taking away power from the branch of the people. The big controversy here is: will congressional Republicans unite with Democrats to defend legislative powers, defecting their party and support for the president? Nancy Pelosi invited Republicans to vote for the resolution, appealing to them by calling for the defense of Congress's "power of the purse," or power over government budgeting. Pelosi doesn't doubt that the resolution will pass, however, if the resolution gets majority vote the president may still veto the resolution. This means 2/3rds of Congress must vote on overriding the veto, which is doubtful. We will see what happens this Tuesday at the house vote...

Hello!

ABOUT ME (Extended)

My political ideology falls under Disaffected Democrats. I personally don't have any political influences I feel have greatly shaped my ideology to this day. As a child, my political ideology was shaped by my father. As I grew older and experienced the world for myself, that ideology changed. 

I try my best to not let those who are advantaged shape my beliefs, and I try my best to listen to what those who are disadvantaged and unhappy with the system have to say. However, I also try my best to not give in completely to sentiments based solely on emotions, and try to keep aware of facts and statistics. I would like to think I stand somewhere in the middle of liberal and conservative (leaning more towards liberal), but overall I think the division of ideologies in itself is toxic and wish we were not grouped into one or the other. I believe this system is designed to pin both sides against the other, creating more of a centrifugal divide in America and driving people away from each other. We should be free to think as we want, without feeling as if we must take on a whole set of beliefs assigned to the party we most align with in order to match a group dynamic.

Quite honestly I am not as politically active as I should be, but I hope to become more aware of the political climate that I live in. I'm honestly ashamed that I haven't educated myself sooner. While at the same time, I truly have a disdain for the culture of politics and party affiliation here in the US and have never desired to take part in it solely due to the nature of disharmony it brings upon us.

I am taking this class, truthfully, because it fulfills a graduation requirement. However, I am still interested to learn about how the US government operates because I feel like I should know these things about my own country. By the end of this course, I hope to be able to make my own informed judgments and political opinions, with confidence, knowing that I understand the way in which our country functions.

I got a 60% on civic literacy quiz and 60% on current events quiz.