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This fall I shamelessly borrowed @DPolisciprof 's great idea to have students make memes about something they learned in the course. So, here is Pt. 1 of Intro to American Politics at Columbia University. Credit attributed where authorized. Pt. 2 (parties/behavior) tomorrow.
We start with the founding, where we learn that the founders were able to forge a Constitution through compromise:
But we quickly find out that many of the initial principles fell short of the democratic standard, as Margaret B. reminds us:
Civil liberties also left something to be desired. As Aileen H. notes, the Bill of Rights didn't even initially protect people against acts of state/local governments!
Of course, certain grammatical aspects (looking at you, 2nd Amendment) could have received more attention as well, per @philluple
Over time, SCOTUS has extended civil liberties, but their tests have occasionally led to unintentional outcomes, such as in Miller v. California, where the bar for banning "obscene" material is set higher if it contains redeeming artistic value. Per @ilanamgg :
Shifting to federalism, Roberta B. weighs in on an important conversation underpinning the Civil War:
And Noa F reminds us that for much of history, people didn't look to the government for help in crises:
Time for presidential powers! This student learned that over time, presidents have often taken powers from Congress, and are rarely in a hurry to give them back:
That said, one argument I make in the class is that if we critically consider what "power" really is, we might want to reconsider whether POTUS is "the most powerful man in the world."
Indeed, I can make a case that a number of other leaders have more power. One of them is Vladimir Putin. Gianni noticed this:
So did this student:
And this one:
Along the same lines, considering the individual liberties of Americans, we might argue that the SCOTUS is more important/powerful:
But this is a controversial claim:
We next move to bureaucracy, where students learn about the Spoils System,
which ultimately led to the assassination of James Garfield by a disgruntled officeholder who purchased a nice gun because he knew it would be on display one day, as Tupelo S noted:
This, of course, compels his successor to push for reform, per @EpsteinJoseph
But there are still problems in American bureaucracy, which often stem from a lack of funding/attention to core duties, as Edward T notes:
That said, arguing for an expanded bureaucracy can compel a...conversation!
As you have seen, our students are smart AND funny! Tune in tomorrow for the second half of the class: Parties and Political Behavior!
