POLS 304@CSU Fall 2019

What states are becoming more polarized? States with more national agendas have more polarized sessions. A national issue means “a state legislative bill that is prominent in the national discourse” (Garlick, 10). And you’re seeing more and more states nowadays having trouble differentiating national concerns from state problems. Most people, if they do watch the news, watch national news channels like Fox or CNN. Constituents pay more attention to national issues because they are simply more focused on in the media. When voters focus their attention on national issues, federal issues start to become local issues. Constituents start to speak up about their new found knowledge of national issues to their state legislators and it adds pressure to members in Congress. It forces them to add national issues to their state political agendas in order to form their party brand.  Why do people vote along party lines? People respond to incentives and Congress’ incentive is to get r...

2019 is known as the “Year of the Women” as more than 60% of women were elected to the 116th Congress mostly being in the House of Representatives. In terms of representation in Congress, there are many different aspects that compare the citizens to those that represent them. In a survey from Civil Service USA, show how much representation there are for several different groups. They used categories such as Gender, Sexual Orientation, Ethnicity, Age, and religion. This comes after the 2018 midterms in which women made a record-breaking history by winning elections in their respective states. These different aspects reflect on what Zhou illustrates as “Symbolic change”, due to the idea that people vote for those that represent themselves in one way or another. However, for the representation of women, this is not the case. For example, the more women in Congress, the more likely it will be for women’s rights-based legislation will be passed. The same idea applies to minorities and LGBT...

Colten Dudley Prof. Matthew Hitt Blog Post 2 October 16, 2019 Activision Blizzard and The First Amendment As a member of the video gaming community in the United States, the past few weeks have been particularly odd. Activision Blizzard, a publishing parent company for both Activision and Blizzard (apparently smashing the names together makes a new company), is under heavy fire after an esports contestant “Blitzchung” voiced his support for the protests going on in Hong Kong. The winner of the video game competition lost all of his expected payouts, roughly 10,000 dollars in tournament winnings, and banned him from playing in another competition for over a year. In addition to this, the esports casters were fired from their jobs for simply sharing the screen with the player while he voiced his support for Hong Kong.  This has caused fairly severe outrage amongst American Consumers, who see this movement made by Activision Blizzard as censorship of Free Speech made i...

Edward Baisley Prof. Matthew Hitt POLS 304 16 Oct. 2019 Blog Post 2 (Two Party System)             The two-party system in the United States of America has been an integral part of our political culture since the country’s inception in the 1700’s. Since then, our country has accepted this system as an inevitable part of how our nation’s leaders are chosen, nominated, and elected into office. Now days, when it comes to our contemporary national congress, both parties have spent an incredible amount of money and resources in an attempt to seize majority control in both the House and the Senate. This attempt to seize majority power in our legislative branch has led to a situation of heated competition. In fact, in recent history, we as citizens of this nation have seen our national Legislator become a partisan battle ground in which both parties and their members are seemingly polarized to an extent that the ...

Having a party majority in the House of Representatives provides the majority party with an arsenal of powerful political tools that can help the majority party members achieve goals on behalf of their party and their constituents.  The most notable perk of holding the House majority is having the ability to elect a member of your party to the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives. Because the Speaker of the House is the presiding member of the body, they are able to use their powers as Speaker to forward the agenda of their party. However, the Speaker of the House also has a strong responsibility to keep their party in power in the House. Part of the reasoning behind this is that the Speaker of the House won't get to keep their position and the power that comes with it if their party doesn't keep the majority. This is explained in Matthew Green's article " Evaluating the Pelosi Speakership " which stated that: "Speakers are party loyalists firs...

Today, partisanship has become synonymous with Congress. By knowing one's party affiliation, many assumptions can be made about what policies they favor. With this rise in partisanship, though, comes a more divided American public and increased difficulty in passing bipartisan legislation in Congress. This growing divide in the American public can be illustrated in the recent outcry against Ellen DeGeneres after a photo surfaced of her laughing with former President George W. Bush at a Dallas Cowboys' game. For many left-leaning people, this picture was seen as a betrayal. However, Michelle Obama shared a "similar fondness for the congenial Bush" according to Mario Nicolais. Yet, none of this backlash seems to been related in any way to Michelle Obama. The entire incident can be explained as the latest demonstration of the current hyper partisan era in United States politics. Over the last four decades, Republicans and Democrats in Congress have become more spli...