American Political System

"In 1958, two residents of Virginia, Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were married in the District of Columbia. The Lovings returned to Virginia shortly thereafter. The couple was then charged with violating the state's anti miscegenation statute, which banned inter-racial marriages. The Lovings were found guilty and sentenced to a year in jail"..."t he Court held that distinctions drawn according to race were generally "odious to a free people" and were subject to "the most rigid scrutiny" under the Equal Protection Clause. The Virginia law, the Court found, had no legitimate purpose "independent of invidious racial discrimination." The Court rejected the state's argument that the statute was legitimate because it applied equally to both blacks and whites and found that racial classifications were not subject to a "rational purpose" test under the Fourteenth Amendment."   The case was s...

In President Obama's inaugural speech he says, "In reaffirming the greatness of our nation we understand that greatness is never a given.  It must be earned.  Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less.  It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those that prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.  Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long rugged path towards prosperity and freedom." In this speech Obama says that America has worked hard for its greatness. America has faced many hardships and fought hard for the best. All Americans and not only the powerful, have a hand in this "greatness". The military, the "celebrated" has fought hard for the nation, but also the civilians are the ones, with their labor who fought harder for "prosperity and freedom...

"This speaks to the notion that the point of gerrymandering isn't to draw yourself a safe seat but to put your opponents in safe seats by cramming all of their supporters into a small number of districts. This lets you spread your own supporters over a larger number of districts. And the way to do this is to draw outlandishly-shaped districts that bring far-flung geographic areas together." This passage explains what gerrymandering is. It is  a practice intended to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries. This passage says that a party can manipulate an electoral district boundaries to cramp the opponents into small districts. This is done to get the party supporters to be more spread out into more districts for their benefit. I chose this quote because it explains gerrymandering for people to understand it more. Also it shows how the government works. Although gerrymandering sounds wrong to do, it is still...

Marshall says "But the normal method of establishing social rights is by the exercise of political power, for social rights imply an absolute right to a certain standard of civilization which is conditional only on the discharge of of the general duties of citizenship. Their content does not depend on the economic value of the individual claimant." I think Marshall is saying that social rights of people are in the hands of political power. Political power makes up the social rights and establish them. He says that social rights suggests the absolute right of people for necessary things to a productive life and is part of citizenship. He also says that these rights don't depend on the social class, it is the same for all people.  I chose this quote because it emphasized the importance of social rights. Also I think it shows that if the political power is corrupt social rights and other human rights will be violated because they  establish these r...

"But, to speak practically and as a citizen unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but  at once  a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it". I chose this quote from Thoreau because it shows how people aren't against having a government, they are  against the people that run the government.  This quote suggests that Thoreau doesn't call himself someone who is opposed to having a government, he calls himself a citizen who wants a better government. He wants people to realize the kind of governments they want to be run by and fight for it until they obtain it. He knows that the wrong is in the people that make the unjust laws, and those that follow them and don't go against it are also wrong. I chose this quote because I believe people should go by it. We, as citizens should seek to change an...

The quote I chose is from the Seventh of March Speech. It is "slavery is a wrong; that it is founded merely in the right of the strongest; and that is an oppression, like unjust wars, like all those conflicts by which a powerful nation subjects a weaker to its will; and that, in its nature, whatever may be said of it in the modifications which have taken place, it is not accofding to the meek spirit of the Gospel. It is not "kindly affectioned"; it does not "seek another's, and not its own"; it does not "let the oppressed go free"." This quote was from Daniel Webster's "The Seventh of March Speech". His speech was a senate speech on slavery, and the compromise between the North and the South.  He was explaining how the North saw slavery. He says they saw slavery like an unjust war where the more powerful country takes advantage over the weaker one. He also states that they see it as an oppression no matter the changes they ma...