Introduction to American Politics
CMC Government 20 Honors Fall 2012
MW 1:15-2:30 PM, Kravis Center, Roberts
South 105
Office Hours: MW 11-noon, 4:15-5:15, and by appointment
Office: Kravis 232 Telephone: 909/607-4224
E-mail:
jpitney@cmc.edu
Daniel Patrick Moynihan observed: “Some . . . deny the existence of evil and others the existence of grace. The art of politics is to live with the reality of both.” With this comment in mind, we take a realistic overview of American politics. This course aims to:
In addition to providing general background on American politics, this course also emphasizes certain themes. One is the continuing relevance of the Declaration of Independence. Historian Pauline Maier has called it "American Scripture," and since 1776, Americans have argued about its meaning. Another is the central role of religion in America political life. Tocqueville said that religion is the first of our political institutions, and we shall ponder what he meant by that. A third is the meaning of citizenship and its connection to deliberation and community service.
Some of the readings are provocative. Do not assume that your professor agrees with everything in the readings, or that you need to do so. Feel free to challenge anything you read, but back up what you say.
Classes
Classes will include lecture and discussion. Finish the readings
before class because our discussions will involve those readings.
We shall also talk about breaking news, so you must read a good news source
such as the
RealClearPolitics or
Politico
Grades
The following will make up your course grade:
Class participation 15%
The papers will develop your skills in writing, research, and political analysis. When grading, I do take the quality of writing into account, applying the standards of Strunk and White. If you object to this approach, do not take this course – or anything else that I teach.
The final examination will test your comprehension of the readings.
In addition to the required readings (below), I may also give you handouts and web links covering current events and basic factual information. The final will cover this material.
Class participation will hone your ability to think on your feet. This grade hinges on class discussions and a brief class presentation. I will also call on students at random, and if you often miss sessions or fail to prepare, your grade will suffer.
As a courtesy to your fellow students, please arrive promptly and refrain from eating in class.
Carefully check the due dates for papers, as well as the date of the final exam. Arrange your schedule accordingly. Do not plan on seeking extensions or make-up work.
Plagiarism will mean referral to the Academic Standards Committee.
Blog
Our class blog is at http://gov20h.blogspot.com. I shall post videos, graphs, news stories, and other material there. We shall use some of this material in class, and you may review the rest at your convenience. You will all receive invitations to post to the blog. (Please let me know if you do not get such an invitation.) I encourage you to use the blog in these ways:
To post questions or comments about the readings before we discuss them in class;
To follow up on class discussions with additional comments or questions.
To post relevant news items or videos.
Required Books
Saul D. Alinsky, Rules for Radicals (New York: Vintage, 1989).
Akhil Reed Amar, America's Constitution: A Biography (New York: Random House, 2006).
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, The Federalist Papers (New York: Signet, 2003 [1788]).
Marjorie Randon Hershey, Party Politics in America, 15th ed. (Boston Pearson, 2013).
William Strunk and E. B. White, The Elements of Style, 4th ed. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999).
Alexis deTocqueville, Democracy in America,
trans. George Lawrence, ed. J.P. Mayer (New York: Harper Perennial Modern
Classics, [1835/40]).
Please use the Lawrence/Mayer edition, which has gone through several
printings. Other translations have different
wording, which would cause confusion.
Schedule (Subject to change, with advance notice).
In addition to the readings below, I may also supply you with various handouts and Internet links.
Sept 5: Introduction
"[S]ecularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King — indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history — were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. So to say that men and women should not inject their `personal morality' into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition." -- Barack Obama
Sept 10, 12: Principles of the American Political Order
"Thomas Jefferson wrote the most important words in American history: `all men are created equal.' Jefferson was also a slave owner, which made him a hypocrite. But the fact that Jefferson was living a life that was at odds with his principles doesn’t invalidate and shouldn't weaken the principle; it only means that we, as fallen creatures, need to strive harder to live up to what we know to be right." -- Peter Wehner
Sept 17, 19: American Civic Culture
“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers—and it was not there . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerce—and it was not there . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution—and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.” -- Not Alexis deTocqueville
FIRST ESSAY ASSIGNED SEPTEMBER 17, DUE SEPTEMBER 26.
READ STRUNK AND WHITE FIRST!
Sept 24, 26: The Constitution
"The notion of America’s founding fathers as proto-rappers is not far-fetched. The show depicts Hamilton as a revolutionary rebel and volatile genius whose hopes for the presidency were dashed by one of America’s first sex scandals, an extramarital affair. His fatal duel with Burr echoes the kind of verbal and territorial skirmishes that preceded the deaths of Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur." -- Stephen Holden, New York Times, January 12, 2012, on "The Hamilton Mixtape."
Oct 1, 3: Congress
"I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill.’ What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?” -- Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)
SECOND PAPER ASSIGNED OCT 3, DUE OCT 17
Oct 8, 10: The Presidency and Executive Branch
“Sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue is 18 acres of sheer utopia, and like Utopia it can be isolated from reality quickly." -- Karl Rove
Oct 15, 17: Judiciary
"I was convinced that the law compelled a result that I would have opposed if I were a legislator." -- Justice John Paul Stevens, explaining why he backed decisions with "unwise" outcomes.
Oct 24: Interest Groups and Parties
"I mean, if you think about -- if you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? No, they are. It's the Post Office that's always having problems." -- President Obama, health insurance town hall, August 11, 2009
Tocqueville, 174-179, 189-195.
Hershey, ch 1-2.
Oct 29, 31: Parties and Elections I
"Look at your houses, your parents, your wives, and your children. Are you prepared to see your dwellings in flames, hoary hairs bathed in blood, female chastity violated, or children writhing on the pike and halberd?" -- Connecticut Courant, September 30, 1800, on what the election of Thomas Jefferson would bring.
THIRD PAPER ASSIGNED OCTOBER 31, DUE NOVEMBER 14.
Nov 5, 7: Parties and Elections II
"[D]ivide their county into small districts, and to appoint in each a subcommittee, whose duty it shall be to make a perfect list of all the voters in their respective districts, and to ascertain with certainty for whom they will vote. If they meet with men who are doubtful as to the man they will support, such voters should be designated in separate lines, with the name of the man they will probably support." -- Abraham Lincoln, 1840
Nov 12, 14: Federalism and Domestic Public Policy
"THE SUPREME COURT HAS STRUCK DOWN THE INDIVIDUAL MANDATE FOR HEALTH CARE" -- CNN, June 28, 2012
"CORRECTION: THE SUPREME COURT BACKS ALL PARTS OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SIGNATURE HEALTH CARE LAW" -- CNN, June 28, 2012, minutes later.
November 19, 21: Media and Popular Culture
"People may think that news organizations have legions of Woodwards and Bernsteins fanned out across the country, poring through old courthouse records or public business records and talking to anyone they think may have some dirt to dish on a candidate. They don’t. They don’t have the money, for one thing. No, the days of Woodward and Bernstein, intrepid investigative reporters, are over. Investigative reporters have been replaced by people who keep a big basket under the transom to catch the dossiers and other materials that the various campaigns drop on opposing candidates." -- Fred Thompson (formerly real US senator and fictional DA)
Tocqueville, pp. 180-188.
TAKE-HOME FINAL ASSIGNED NOVEMBER 28, DUE DECEMBER 12
Nov 26, 28: Citizenship, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights
"I know that a lot of people have hoped and prayed for that moment. A lot of people have come from places where they, of course, did not have freedom. I can empathize with it. I know what they must feel. I retreat to my own moment, when I was given that. The oath of allegiance is very emotional to me— also the flag. I saw the flag going up where the swastika had been flying for years." -- Holocaust survivor Gerda Weismann Klein, reflecting on naturalization ceremonies.
Dec 3, 6: Political Warfare
"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters." -- Frederick Douglass
Alinsky, prologue and pp. 3-125
Dec 10, 12: Political Warfare and the Future of American Politics
"You become a better organizer when you understand that there is nothing new under the sun. All the pitfalls, the problems, the disputes — this is the way human beings are. Politics is a human science and this guy [Alinsky] understood that. He was practical. He understood how to get competing factions and interests and individuals to get in the same room and form what he called a ‘people's organization’ and to move in the same direction to take on city hall." -- FreedomWorks organizer Brendan Steinhauser
Alinsky, 126-196.