American Political System

Rachel E. Barkow in "Another Stab at the Constitution", says " We are a nation dedicated to liberty and equality. So it is a particularly tragic irony that America leads the world in imprisonment and that a large proportion of those serving sentences are people of color." She argues that the eighth amendment should be closely followed. This quote suggests that although America claims to be land of liberty and equality and the "land of the free", it has the highest incarceration rate in the world. America has about 20% of the incarceration rate of the world. Many people are sometimes wrongfully sentenced or sentenced harshly for a minor crime. Also, she argues that the majority are people of color. This shows the inequality in the system.  I chose this quote because it is the sad and true reality in America today. We see people getting arrested for a minor crime and sometimes the evidence isn't looked at closely, and so that leads to wrong...

The quote I chose is James Madison's quote from Federalist NO.10. He says " Extend the sphere and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other ". In this quote Madison argues that in a larger population it is harder for a group to dominate. When he says " Extend the sphere and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests" he means that when there is more people there is more interests and much more different ideas. And so this means that no one group will have the majority and take over or violate the rights of any person, and that there should be a balance. He also says that even if there is a majority it will be hard for them to see themselves as the stronger group and so...