The Value of Free & Fair Elections
The people who best know the value of free and fair elections are those who spent time living without them.
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fair
Political Trust & Distrust 9
Trust requires that political participation and decision making are inclusive & free from coercion.
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The Presidency 27
Voters and political parties became additional sources of presidential power and accountability.
The Presidency 26
The power to pardon creates some overlap in the powers of the presidency and those of the court.
The Presidency 25
The Twentieth Amendment largely removed the need for power to convene or adjourn Congress.
The Presidency – Quiz 1
Test your knowledge against these five questions!
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The Presidency 19
To faithfully execute the laws of the land, the presidency was assigned executive power that was mostly undefined.
The Presidency 18
Faithfully executing the laws of the land is one of the most important obligations of the presidency.
The Presidency 17
The framers feared that a president could be seduced by a foreign power to harm the country.
The Presidency 13
The framers agreed that the President would command the armed forces – with several explicit reservations.
The Value of Voting
Does voting make any difference? Is it worth the trouble? The answer depends upon you. If you and enough other people vote for someone who has pledged to represent your interests and to work with your opposition to solve problems, then, yes, absolutely your vote will make a difference. Politicians are highly tuned to what
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Keeping Our Republic
In general, constitutions are written by people who expect to live and work together for generations to come. It’s when enough people no longer feel this way that Constitutions are weakened or destroyed. One of the reasons they might feel that way is because they have become divided and no longer trust each other.
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A Tale of Two Countries
Clashes in Berkeley and Portland bring to mind an interesting story about two countries where people who felt frustrated with each other and their governments. Citizens in Columbia and Venezuela (both republics) were fed up with the inability of their governments to solve their problems. In both cases, they were willing to try the leadership
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Are You Well Served by the USPS?
The U.S. Constitution provides for nearly universal adult access to the ballot. The pandemic is making that difficult. Most voting precincts had historically depended upon retirees to administer the system, many have to shutdown as this high-risk population is reluctant to participate this year. Younger people need to step up. If you want to
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New Course on Trust & The Presidency
Take this short civics course about trust, distrust, and the presidency.
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Declaration of Independence
Consider every citizen in this country to be an American, worthy of your support and help.
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Trust and Our Police
To improve trust in our police, fairness and accountability must be more evenly distributed along lines of race and ethnicity.
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Divided We Fall
History shows that one of the shortest paths towards dictatorship is to get the people divided against each other.
Our Leaders Don’t Want Us to Know
We get to have leaders who are accountable to us, and we get to choose our leaders peacefully – but only if …
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Freedom of the Press
Thomas Jefferson said “Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.” A free press is especially important in the coronavirus pandemic.
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Urgent Attention Needed
It is hard to fight the corona virus without a healthy liberal, republican democracy. Urgent attention is needed.
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